Dallas City Council members rejected a series of proposed amendments to the FY23-24 budget aimed at reducing government spending and lowering the property tax rate for Dallasites.
The council held a budget workshop on Wednesday to make changes to the $4.6 billion budget proposed by City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Council members began the meeting with more than 60 proposed amendments.
Several amendments were put forth by Council Members Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley to cut spending and direct those funds toward property tax relief. However, the rest of the council almost entirely rejected them.
Mayor Eric Johnson consistently voted in favor of these amendments, some of which also garnered votes from Council Members Kathy Stewart and Gay Donnell Willis. Other council members, including Adam Bazaldua and Omar Narvaez, not only voted against but spoke in firm opposition to the modifications.
While most amendments aimed at lessening Dallasites’ tax burden did not move forward, council members did agree on changes that would lower the property tax rate by an additional $0.0036 per $100 valuation.
The two amendments accounting for this reduction came from Ridley and Bazaldua. Including the initial rate reduction proposed by Broadnax, this would account for a total decrease of $0.0101 per $100 valuation from the property tax rate for the current fiscal year.
However, Council Member Mendelsohn maintains that a mere one-cent reduction is not enough and will actually increase the tax burden on Dallasites due to rising property values. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Mendelsohn has advocated for the adoption of a “no-new-revenue” property tax rate of $0.6813 per $100 valuation — more than five cents less than the $0.7358 recommended by Broadnax.
Furthermore, she has urged the council to reign in City spending, speaking against an ever-increasing annual budget.
“When I came on this council, [we had] a $3.5 billion budget. We currently have a $4.5 billion budget, with a $4.63 billion budget proposed to us,” she said Wednesday. “These amendments are just saying, ‘Please stay where you are at your record-high[est] budget ever of $4.5 billion.'”
Council members who voted against spending limitations listed a variety of reasons why they declined to support those amendments, claiming the departments where cuts were proposed are too important to the City of Dallas and its residents.
For example, Council Member Carolyn King Arnold proclaimed that reducing funding to the Office of Equity and Inclusion would “put legs on Jim Crow.” This sentiment was echoed by Council Member Narvaez, who noted that the City Council approved the Racial Equity Plan last year and reasoned the City should be willing to fund directives that align with that plan.
Council Member Zarin Gracey declined to support cuts in the Office of Community Care because it provides a “much-needed service, particularly in southern Dallas.”
Mendelsohn said her colleagues have “nice dreams” about what they want Dallas to be but are not considering larger factors.
“I want Dallas to be wonderful things also, but I also want people to stay here. I want them to thrive here,” she said. “Our city has had the least population growth of any of the surrounding areas. … People are intentionally not choosing to come here. There’s a reason. And you should think about what that might be.”
“I do think there [are] different worldviews on this council. Some people want to continue to tax and grow a very slow and inefficient government, and other people would like a very efficient and effective government that lets people keep their own money,” Mendelsohn asserted. “[People] can solve a lot of their own problems if they have those resources, but we keep taking them.”
Wednesday’s votes were not binding, as the council will not vote on the final FY23-24 budget until September 20.
Most of the amendments approved by the council concerned moving funds between departments, shifting the allocation of more than $45 million. The largest item was a $31 million transfer from the Court and Detention Services Department. If this amendment is adopted in the final budget, these funds would be used to establish the City Marshals Office as a stand-alone department.
Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland said at the end of the meeting that his office would release a comprehensive summary of the amendments on Friday.