John Wiley Price + Bail Bonds Not Collected = $35 Million Owed to Dallas County: Why Dallas County Raised Our Taxes ?

So, come to find out, Dallas County has done a poor job of collecting millions of dollars in uncollected court case judgements over the oh, past 25 to 30 years or so. Which means we are owed about $35 million in court judgments against bail bondsmen and attorneys who write bonds but whose clients fail to appear for court. That’s the deal, the way bail bonds work.

Dandy, just dandy. Remember last September, the Dallas County Commissioners voted in a tax INCREASE to help cover a $50 million shortfall, read Kevin Krause right here if you can. If you cannot, here’s a quote:

“The budget has some of the deepest cuts in years, required because tax revenue has dropped as a result of slumping property values.Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield opposed the tax increase and voted against the budget and tax rate. Commissioners added 1.5 cents to the current property tax rate of 22.81 cents per $100 of valuation. The 6.6 percent increase would add $18 to the annual tax bill on a $150,000 house. A total of 202 positions are being cut, and about 130 county employees are losing their jobs. The five constable precincts will take the biggest hit, with 80 deputy constables to be laid off. Last year, the commissioners eliminated 61 positions.”

So the cuts were made, employees and the constables laid off, taxes raised $18 a year on a home valued at $150,000, or $180 a year on a home valued at $1.5m. Listen to what John Wiley price said last September:

“We cut to the marrow,” Commissioner John Wiley Price WHO SITS ON THE BAIL BOND COURT said. “It’s not that we have not been frugal. Hell, we can’t do anything about the [property] values.”

Frugal, eh? OK, show me the money. Where are those bail bonds? AND AS FOR THAT $35 MILLION, KISS MOST OF IT AWAY. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was in la la land about this issue until the Dallas Morning News stuck it under his nose, all thanks to the FBI investigation of John Wiley Price & Co. He admitted that most of the $35 million in uncollected judgments and is unrecoverable because it is decades old. (I mean, some of those geezers might not even be here.) At best, he says the county will be able to collect only about 2 to 5 percent of the total.

It’s times like these where we need to make videos of the stupidity and then play them over and over ad naseum at City Council and Dallas County meetings where taxation is discussed. And when those sweet people come up and want to save libraries and fix potholes we could say, yes, sure, we’d love to do it but your County guv here lost all the money  due to mismanagement.