Arlington Mayor Jim Ross is facing mounting scrutiny as the city works to address a $25 million budget shortfall for 2026, with a proposed property tax increase aimed at closing the gap.
The budget proposal calls for a three-cent property tax rate hike, which would cost the average homeowner about $59 annually. Including higher fees, the average Arlington homeowner would pay roughly $147 more each year, according to WFAA.
“You have a city that’s going through a financial challenge, really through no creation of our own, but through structural changes that are happening outside of us that we are now trying to manage,” Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton told the city council.
If approved, the increase would generate an estimated $11.1 million in revenue. The plan also includes eliminating 42 vacant city positions.
The move differs from approaches in neighboring cities.
Fort Worth City Manager Jay Chapa has proposed lowering the city’s property tax rate to 67 cents per $100 in value, which would reduce the average homeowner’s tax bill by $20. Dallas City Manager Kim Tolbert has proposed reducing that city’s rate from 70.47 cents to 69.97 cents per $100 of value, according to the Fort Worth Report and WFAA.
The proposed tax hike comes as Ross faces ongoing political controversy.
Public records obtained by The Dallas Express show the IRS is garnishing his wages to collect more than $174,000 in unpaid federal taxes. A June 2025 document from the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector lists $940.39 in penalties and interest, with total back taxes at $174,945.93.
Ross is also under criticism after 2018 video footage resurfaced showing him making vulgar and sexually explicit remarks toward Christian street preacher Ruben Israel during the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the comments targeted Israel’s wife, who has been in an assisted living facility for years with Parkinson’s disease, per Rich Penkoski, a street preacher with Official Street Preachers.
Local faith leaders have condemned Ross’ disgusting remarks.
“Ruben Israel was no shrinking violet; yet even he deserved dignity and respect from an elected representative. Arlington can demand better without trading insults for insults. ‘Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Romans 12:21),” Pastor Troy Jackson of New Beginnings Church in Bedford told The Dallas Express.
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying… (Ephesians 4:29),” Jackson added.