The city of Dallas’ new proposed budget includes funding to hire hundreds of additional police officers, maintaining public safety equipment and a tax cut city staff is calling “the largest in modern history."
The total budget? Just about $5 billion.
The General Fund portion of the proposed budget is around $2 billion, which is “$65.1 million or 3.5% greater that the previous year,” according to the city.
While the city is focused on investing over $100 million on projects like street improvements, alley maintenance and sidewalks, the focus of the proposed budget is public safety. Out of the roughly $2 billion general fund, around $1.2 billion is allocated to safety initiatives.
“The combined budget for the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire Rescue increased by $78 million to fulfill commitments made to our first responders,” a city press release said. “This budget reflects a reimaging of service delivery, including eliminating duplications, identifying efficiencies, and other measures that do not significantly affect service to residents.”
The city is budgeting for 250 new police officers, 63 firefighters and over $40 million to maintain public safety equipment. The budget also includes an increase to firefighter and police officer.
The new salary will start at over $75 thousand dollars, which is about a 40% increase in salary over the last six years. Additional funds to meet the city’s pension obligations is also detailed in the first draft budget. The city will increase its contributions into the system by $18 million, bringing the total contribution to just over $200 million.
The city’s deadline to submit a plan to remedy billions in unfunded police and fire pension liabilities is fast approaching — and city and pension officials have yet to come to an agreement over that plan.
The police department’s major budget items are funding the city’s meet and confer agreement for paying officers. The city has budgeted over $45 million for that line item in fiscal year 2025. There’s also another million allocated to “support backlog of drug testing.”
Dallas voters will decide whether the city adopts looser marijuana policies in November. The voter-led charter amendments could decriminalize up to 4 ounces of the drug in Dallas.
The city’s elected and police officials have said they are either hesitant or wholly oppose the measure. Some cite fears of increased drug dealing activity, while others say 4 ounces is just too much weed for personal use.
But the budget isn’t just increasing the funds allocated for public safety. The city is reducing funding for its taser equipment “due to [an] operation decision not to upgrade existing equipment.” That could save the city around $255,000.
The budget lays out a few other areas where the city hopes to save some money. Those include partnering with other groups to provide mounted and canine unit resources and for veterinarian services for “suspected animal cruelty investigations.”
Dallas Fire Rescue will see a decrease in overtime budget. In the last fiscal year “overtime was needed to allow DFR to maintain minimum staffing,” according to the city.
“The FY 2024-25 budget includes a reduction in overtime by $10.3 million with additional savings of $4.5 million annually expected in future years,” according to the city’s budget presentation.
The city has proposed to invest around $26 million to address the needs of city facilities. Recently, District 14 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis got stuck between floors in a City Hall elevator.
“May be taking a harder look at the City Hall maintenance budget,” Willis said in a social media post before being freed by Dallas firefighters.
May be taking a harder look at the City Hall maintenance budget as I rest between two floors this morning. At least I brought @Starbucks scones and coffee for the meeting! pic.twitter.com/0Rwnm0hfC0
— Gay Donnell Willis (@GayDWillis13) August 10, 2024
Elected officials will begin looking at the budget on August 13. The city already faces multiple financial hurdles, with more possibly on the way. Two voter petitions — one to decriminalize marijuana and the other focused on police recruitment and retention — will end up on the November ballot.
City officials have said at least some of the proposed charter amendments could cause massive cuts to city services and cost the city over $100 million.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.
