Dallas County commissioners decided on Tuesday to add a homelessness tax proposal to the November election ballot — and approved the first tax rate increase since 2010.
Commissioners, though split 3 to 2, also approved a tax rate of $0.2246 for every $100 in value for fiscal year 2027.
Adding the homelessness tax proposal to the mid-term ballot also was split 3 to 2.
It lets voters decide whether to approve that tax.
It would fund homelessness outreach services and resource support, including housing and mental heath treatment.
The county would be locked in to a minimum 5-year contract with the non-profit Housing Forward.
That organization would help allocate money among housing and healthcare network programs.
Commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia voted not to include the proposal on the ballot.
"The voters deserve a well-designed plan with measurable objectives and that is what is not there," Garcia said Tuesday. "
Several speakers voiced their support for the proposal on Tuesday.
The proposal originally included public safety components, like more crisis intervention training for law enforcement and a program that helps people in jail who self-report homelessness to secure shelter and support services.
Those and other programs were removed from the proposal language, lowering the adopted budget to about $1.59 billion.
The county shouldn't ask taxpayers for more than it needs, Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said.
"We don't need to tax the voters at a higher rate than 2.4," he said. "That's what the amendment is. We've worked that budget again and again. We've found those savings, so let's only charge what is necessary."
To comply with state law, the tax rate was raised on Tuesday to its historical high before voters get the choice to approve more.
Dallas County leaders had held steady or lowered the tax rate for the last 16 years.
If the Tax Rate Election fails this Fall, the rate automatically reverts to the 2.4 VAR — Voter-Approval Tax Rate — that commissioners passed Tuesday.
The adopted budget also reverts to the originally proposed budget.
Housing Forward proposed to commissioners in May a tax to consistently support homeless response outreach. It works with the All Neighbors Coalition — a collaborative network of over 150 public, private, and nonprofit organizations — to end homelessness in the community.
Housing Forward president and CEO Sarah Kahn said last week it can move 4,500 more households off the streets and offer access to treatment, stable housing and stronger neighborhoods if commissioners agree to present the proposal to voters, and it passes.
"That is what residents are calling on us to do," she said. "And this proposal gives them the opportunity to move from managing homelessness to actually solving it.
Extra revenue from the tax could raise an estimated $100 million for homelessness services.
"Thanks to the leadership of Commissioner [Theresa] Daniel, Commissioner [Andy] Sommerman and Judge Jenkins, the Dallas County Commissioners Court has advanced the proposal to scale solutions to homelessness to every corner of Dallas County," Kahn said.
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