Mayor Johnson: A time for choosing
As it stands right now, the proposed budget and tax rate would result in most Dallas taxpayers paying more in city property taxes than last year in order to pay for the largest city budget in Dallas history.
Originally published September 17, 2023. The following is adapted from my email newsletter. To subscribe, click here.
On Wednesday, September 20, the City Council will take its final vote on the city manager’s proposed budget and adopt a tax rate for the new fiscal year that begins on October 1. As it stands right now, the proposed budget and tax rate would result in most Dallas taxpayers paying more in city property taxes than last year in order to pay for the largest city budget in Dallas history.
Dallas, we have arrived at a time for choosing.
Is Dallas going to choose to add higher city property taxes on top of inflation and higher interest rates and make owning a home or running a business in Dallas even less feasible for those who would like to live and work here? Or is Dallas going to choose to hold the line on spending and collect no more in city property taxes this year than we did last year from our residents and businesses?
This isn’t the first time in the past four years that Dallas has faced such a serious choice. When confronted with angry protesters outside my home for several nights demanding that I “Defund the Police”, you stood with me in resisting these calls. That was absolutely the right choice, and Dallas was rewarded for it: Dallas is now the only one of America’s ten largest cities to reduce every major category of violent crime tracked by the FBI the past two years in a row.
The truth is that the city government’s course is unsustainable. The city government cannot and should not attempt to solve every societal ill. The city government cannot and should not duplicate or displace the role of the private sector, non-profit organizations, the federal, state, and county governments, or school districts. The city government can and should do two things, however: perform its essential functions — police and fire, sanitation, water, streets, parks and recreation, and libraries — more efficiently and scale back all of its non-essential functions.
Neither city government bureaucrats nor politicians know better than you what to do with your hard-earned money and it is arrogant to suggest otherwise. If you agree, then you should make your voice heard by clicking on this link and encouraging your city council representative to support budget amendments on Wednesday that would result in a lower tax bill, and not simply a lower tax rate, for most Dallas taxpayers.
3,000 new jobs
This week, it was announced that Frontier Communications, the cable and internet giant that has previously been ranked among the nation’s Fortune 500 companies, is relocating its corporate headquarters to Dallas! This latest major corporate relocation will bring 3,000 new jobs to Dallas and further confirms that Dallas is the best city in America for business.
Canadian Consul General visits City Hall
It was a pleasure to welcome the Consul General of Canada to City Hall recently. More than 11,000 jobs in the Dallas area depend on exports to Canada, and it was part of the conversation to see how economic ties like these can be strengthened.
It is a priority of this Administration to grow Dallas’s international stature and to deepen the economic and cultural ties between the city and its international partners. Through recent efforts, a French Trade Office is now open in the newly established Dallas International District. Read more about this mayoral priority here.
Best public golf course
Texas Monthly recently featured Dallas’s Stevens Park in their “Guide to Texas’s Best Public Golf Courses”. The course, which they call a “municipal gem,” first opened in 1924 and features mature oak trees, dynamic elevation changes, and a fun and challenging golf experience for golfers of all skill levels. Read the feature and learn more about the course here.
That is all for today.
