The two survivors in the race to be the next Dallas mayor faced off Thursday night in a debate a little more than two weeks before the June 8 runoff.
Eric Johnson, who's represented parts of Dallas in the State House since 2010, and Scott Griggs, a City Council member for eight years, led nine candidates in the initial May 4 election.
Their May 23 debate at the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center was moderated by KERA's Sam Baker. It was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas.
One issue the two candidates agreed on was that the city's police officers need to be paid more. They disagreed on where that money should come from.
“The only way we’re going to actually significantly increase police pay," Johnson said, "and make their salaries more secure and their pension more secure and everything else we need to do on the benefits and compensation side is to grow our tax base and raise more tax revenue that way.”
Griggs, though, said the money is already there if you know where to look.
“I have the experience and the skill to find that in our $1.3 billion general fund," Griggs said. "If you know how the general fund works and the budget, you can find $16, 17 million.”
Early voting starts Tuesday. The runoff election is June 8.
