The Dallas City Council will vote to finalize the property tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year this Wednesday but will hold a public hearing that same day before the vote.
Residents and voters will have the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns before council members vote on how much Dallasites will have to pay in property taxes over the next year. Residents can register to speak before the council here. The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and the deadline to register is 5 p.m. Tuesday.
City leaders will vote not only on the property tax rate but also on the FY23-24 City budget.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, City Manager T.C. Broadnax presented the council with a $4.6 billion budget for the upcoming year, including a property tax rate of $0.7393 per $100 valuation. The property tax rate for the current fiscal year is $0.7458. Council members later voted to set the property tax rate ceiling for the upcoming fiscal year at $0.7357.
However, Council Member Cara Mendelsohn has insisted that despite the reduction in the tax rate, the ceiling is not enough to compensate for rising property values and would actually result in a property tax increase for Dallas homeowners. She has proposed a “no-new-revenue” property tax rate of $0.6813 — more than five cents less than the $0.7393 recommended by Broadnax.
According to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, the property tax rate proposed by Broadnax and supported by the majority of the council would result in Dallasites paying a total of $120,472,041 more in property taxes than they did for the current fiscal year.
Mendelsohn released a video with Americans for Prosperity Texas on Monday encouraging residents to “help to try to turn this around.”
“What we know is our budget has grown much faster than our population growth or the rate of inflation, and we’re headed to a five-year fiscal cliff,” she said. “Because we know what’s coming, we’re asking your help to try to turn this around.”
“Reach out to your council member,” she continued. “Tell them that you’re not looking for another property tax increase, and in fact, you’d like to see the budget either stay the same or go down.”
“We’re heading to a five year fiscal cliff…we’re asking your help to try and turn this around” – @caraathome
Take action:
✅ Follow the link in our bio to email your member of council.
✅ Sign up through the City Secretary’s website to testify at the Wednesday meeting. pic.twitter.com/FfWpUExjnR
— AFP – Texas (@TexasAFP) September 18, 2023
Over the past month, Mendelsohn and Mayor Eric Johnson have led the charge against increasing taxes but have garnered little support from their colleagues. Other council members have previously supported tax increases in favor of “equity,” as voting against tax increases would require the City to reduce spending across various departments.
For example, Council Member Carolyn King Arnold claimed that reducing the Office of Equity & Inclusion budget could “put legs on Jim Crow.”
These comments came during a budget workshop on September 6 when Council Members Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley proposed a series of budget amendments to reduce spending and taxes, but the rest of the council rejected the majority of the suggested changes.
