The Dallas City Council is scheduled to debate the property tax rate and new budget amendments at Wednesday’s meeting. What could be another contentious marathon discussion, comes after at least two Dallas elected officials have launched campaigns to lower property taxes.
Earlier this month the council debated the first set of budget amendments. Out of over 60 proposed, only around five or six were adopted.
Most of the amendments centered around cutting some city department funding and reallocating it for street maintenance, legal fees and lowering the property tax rate.
During the earlier session, council members grappled with some of their colleagues proposing amendments that would cut funding to departments like the Office of Equity and Inclusion.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold says those types of suggestions set the city back — even decades.
“If we begin to turn back the hands of time, we’re going to roll ourselves all the way back and we’re going to put legs on Jim Crow,” Arnold said at an early September council meeting. “And he’s going to be right back here in Dallas, Texas.”
District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn — along with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson — started the push for a lower property tax rate and what they call responsible city spending. That has turned into social media campaigns, multiple memos and even props during the last debate.
Mendelsohn says the city’s spending is out of control and needs to be tamed.
“We’re talking about a billion dollar increase in the budget in four years,” Mendelsohn said at a late August council meeting. “To our Dallas residents and our businesses, I want to say, thanks a billion. But have you had enough?”
Most recently, Mendelsohn has continued her campaign to “encourage residents to speak up about” the budget and city sending by filming a PSA, according to a tweet from the council member.
Filmed a PSA today to encourage residents to speak up about responsible City of Dallas spending & taxation. Our budget has grown $1billion since I took office in 2019. The proposed budget is $4.63 billion, outpacing population growth & inflation. Final budget vote is Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/aILg93FgWl
— Cara Mendelsohn (@caraathome) September 17, 2023
Not everyone on the council agrees with her approach to getting a lower rate.
“Disingenuous messaging to the public is probably my least favorite part of politics…I will not support cutting services to save the avg resident a couple bucks!” a tweet from District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s account said.
Disengenuous messaging to the public is probably my least favorite part of politics.
— Adam R. Bazaldua (@AdamBazaldua) September 18, 2023
I guess politicians gonna politic…
I will not support cutting services to save the avg resident a couple bucks! https://t.co/kHhjg41eDO
Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who rarely breaks into the discussions around the horseshoe, says the narrative presented by Mendelsohn and Johnson is not the whole story.
“I just want to be clear, that notion and that narrative out there about ‘where we’re headed’,” Broadnax said at an early September council meeting. “…we’re headed for continued growth and continued investment in the things that people want.”
Broadnax says the money is being spent on the “number one, two, three and four” proprieties of the council and Dallas communities.
“So the money is been invested where the council has asked for it to be invested,” Broadnax said at the meeting.
The council is scheduled to have a final reading of the budget and tax rate ordinance at the end of Wednesday’s meeting. City officials say if the council does not agree on a tax rate and causes “the budget to be out of balance, we will need to reconsider the final reading and adoption of the budget ordinance.”
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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