Dallas officials continue to solicit feedback on how to manage the City’s budget priorities for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
As part of a seven-question survey about policy and service issues, quality of life, economic development, public safety, and housing, residents are asked to explain what is more important to them and whether they would like the City to lower, raise, or maintain the City’s tax rate of $0.7357.
The Dallas City Council adopted the rate in September. The rate is expected to increase property taxes collected by $120 million — even though it’s one cent lower than the previous fiscal year. The budget for the current fiscal year is $4.6 billion.
During that September meeting, Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) proposed an amendment that would have reduced the property tax rate by 5.33 cents, having already supported a “no new revenue” rate of $0.6813, The Dallas Express reported. The rate was not approved.
“Telling people you voted for a tax rate deduction and sending them a higher bill is misleading to the residents,” Mendelsohn said. “They’re smart enough to understand their value has gone way up. The rate needs to go way down, or they’re going to pay a lot more.”
In a statement, Mayor Eric Johnson explained why he voted against the budget.
“In an environment of such economic uncertainty for our residents and businesses, with inflation and interest rates being where they are, I simply could not vote for a budget that is the largest in the history of the city and that is paid for by raising taxes on our residents and businesses,” he said.
A Budget Accountability Report prepared by the Department of Budget & Management Services said that as of February 29, revenues in the general fund were projected to be $1.2 million over budget “due to increased revenue in charges for service and licenses and permits, partially offset by reduced fines and forfeitures.”
The fiscal year extends from October 1 to September 30.
“General Fund expenditures are projected to be $450,000 under budget due to salary savings from vacant uniform and non-uniform positions in General Fund departments, partially offset by uniform and non-uniform overtime expenditures.”
The beginning fund balance for this fiscal year was $323,159,062. General fund expenditures were budgeted at over $1.8 billion, equal to the expected tax dollars collected.
Residents can access the budget priorities survey in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mandarin through July.
