Mattie Parker’s 2025 priorities additionally embrace transportation and maintaining tax price flat.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Value is now the nation’s twelfth largest metropolis, with practically 1,000,000 residents in keeping with the most recent knowledge from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Fort Value is the nation’s fastest-growing metropolis by share amongst these with populations over 50,000, with a mean of 59 folks shifting there day by day.
And for Mayor Mattie Parker, which means alternative.
The Republican thinks metropolis authorities is on path heading into 2025, and her priorities embrace transportation enhancements to ease congestion. That features interested by transit in a different way sooner or later.
“We’re going to be increasing TEXRail from downtown into the medical district. We’re engaged on finalizing these plans and absolutely funding that challenge which is important for us as a result of TEXRail has been extremely profitable,” Mayor Parker instructed us on Inside Texas Politics. “However you even have to consider the legacy system of the TRE (Trinity Railway Specific). Let’s double-track it. Put new automobiles on that system.”
Different priorities for the mayor embrace a easy transition between metropolis managers with Jay Chapa taking up for David Cooke, who’s retiring.
She additionally needs metropolis leaders to have a good suggestion of how the upcoming legislative session will affect a metropolis like Fort Value.
And Parker is adamant town can proceed to maintain its portion of the property tax price flat in 2025, remaining under the no-new-revenue price.
“We actually focus exhausting on how do you maintain that property tax price as little as potential to additionally ship glorious metropolis companies on behalf of residents. I’m hopeful we are able to do this once more. 12 months-over-year that’s all the time the aim, to maintain it compressed as a lot as potential,” she stated.
One eventuality the Mayor says town should be ready for is college selection, and lawmakers passing an training financial savings account, or ESA program.
And she or he says she’s encouraging everybody in Fort Value, from metropolis leaders to superintendents, to cease worrying about college vouchers and give attention to what issues, which might quickly imply attempting to safe much more satisfactory funding for public training, a message she admits not all districts agree with.
“I do suppose college vouchers, ESAs, will move this session. All of the writing is on the wall,” the mayor argued. “So, I need to work with management at Fort Value ISD, all 12 districts throughout town of Fort Value, to advocate on what they should be profitable as a conventional public college.”
