The Dallas City Council voted at Wednesday’s meeting to accept a grant that will be used to create a framework for future bond allocations to be race-conscious.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax was authorized to “accept a grant of the Municipal Bond Markets & Racial Equity Technical Assistance and Grant.”
The item was approved without discussion.
Totaling $50,000, the money will go toward developing “an equity-driven selection framework to recommend an increase of future bonds allocations.”
“The City of Dallas will benefit from the funds for the development of a customized plan that includes producing a place-based analysis of social equity in the City to mitigate unintended burdens on historically disadvantaged communities and support assessment for potential investments in equity priority areas,” the resolution claims.
The grant is offered by the Public Finance Initiative (PFI) in partnership with PFM Financial Advisors, PFM Consulting Group LLC, The Government Alliance on Race & Equity, and other national partners.
A nonprofit focused on “developing public finance programs that center the values of equity, sustainability, and inclusive growth in fiscal decision-making,” PFI has launched a nationwide effort to introduce race-based considerations into the government bond issuance process.
“Our framework on bond markets and racial equity makes clear how practicing and realizing racial equity can be achieved in different ways across the different phases of the bond issuance process, and supports issuers in articulating, benchmarking, and strengthening their practices,” states the organization’s website.
Lourdes Germán, PFI’s executive director, asserted in a 2022 press release about the organization’s Bond Markets and Racial Equity Project, “We have an opportunity to disrupt long-held patterns of inequality and segregation and to elevate racial equity in new arenas.”
“This project seeks to take what we learn and develop a program to help issuers center racial equity as a key consideration within the municipal bond market, enabling communities and investors to better understand how to effectively leverage the issuance process,” Germán continued.
The nationwide program was funded by a $4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Kimberlee Cornett, the director of impact investments for the foundation, said in the 2022 press release, “We are proud to support the creation of tools for policymakers, practitioners, and investors to effectively prioritize equity throughout their work.”
“We and our partners believe that this essential lens must be developed for the public finance market, which so many communities rely on and so many investors put capital towards,” she concluded.
The PFI selected the City of Dallas to participate in its race-based bond project, according to the resolution.
The City Council vote to accept the grant came just one day before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the U.S. Constitution requires color-blind admissions in publicly funded universities, calling into question years of race-conscious practices.
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