Dallas Mayor Issues Budget Cut Challenge To Lower Property Taxes

Mayor Eric Johnson is challenging the rest of the Dallas City Council to propose their own budget cuts so that the proposed property tax rate could be lowered further.

In a memo on Friday, the mayor proposed eliminating $339,000 budgeted for the city’s state lobbying team, arguing that the team is “not delivering results commensurate with its cost.” Johnson also wants to redirect $386,612 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding away from Skillman Library to aquatics programs in southern Dallas.

“Equivalent dollars will be moved back into the General Fund and put toward reducing the tax rate,” Johnson wrote. “Together, these two amendments [to the proposed budget] will save $725,612 and enable a 0.032¢ tax rate reduction.”

The current proposed tax rate is $0.702200 per $100 valuation.

Johnson acknowledged that the added tax relief his budget amendment would yield would be small on its own, but he noted that if every member of the city council pitched similar amendments, they could deliver something significant on top of the 0.5¢ reduction already built into City Manager Kimberly Tolbert’s proposed tax rate.

Council Member Bill Roth (District 11) actually did just that a couple of weeks ago, pitching cuts to duplicate programs and DEI initiatives totaling $13.1 million.

Johnson’s push to redirect the ARPA money will counter an amendment made by Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9), who proposed using the federal funds to keep Skillman operating for another year, albeit only three days a week instead of five.

The ARPA funds were supposed to support a septic program geared toward southern Dallas, where there are hundreds of residents whose homes are not connected to the city’s sewer system. The program provides direct assistance to facilitate that connection.

Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) made a little ruckus about redirecting the money earlier this month, pointing out how some council members often bemoan how southern Dallas repeatedly gets the short end of the stick when it comes to services and investment.

“If we use this money for this, I don’t expect to have this come back again, because literally you’re taking money that’s designated for the south and moving it to keep open a library that everyone can obviously see should not stay open,” Mendelsohn said.

Tolbert’s balanced budget proposal called for shuttering the library “to reduce redundancy in services provided by proximate branches.” The closest library to Skillman is about a mile away.

While Johnson’s proposal would not see the money spent on the septic program (which Tolbert said only a couple of dozen residents have taken advantage of so far), it would still be spent in the southern part of the city and free up more for property tax relief.

The city council is slated to adopt a budget and property tax rate at next week’s meeting on September 17.

City Hall Roundup: Tolbert Balances Budget, Boosts Police Spending

While officials have reduced the property tax rate for the past several years now, swelling property valuations have curbed the city’s efforts to deliver homeowners actual relief. Meanwhile, overall spending has been reaching new heights each year, with the latest proposed budget of $5.2 billion poised to become the biggest yet.

Part of that package is a significant increase in spending on police resources following the adoption of Proposition U.

“I challenge each of you to propose budget amendments that cut non-essential spending and direct those savings toward reducing the tax rate — without compromising the City Manager’s proposed $1.3 billion investment in public safety or the proposed $162 million investment in street improvements and maintenance,” Johnson wrote. “Reimagining our City budget for greater efficiency is not an insurmountable task, and I trust each of you is up to this challenge?”