City Council pushes for shared sacrifice as Dallas faces budget crunch

Posted by ozmox@reddit | Dallas | View on Reddit | 39 comments

Dallas city leadership needs a wake-up call. The budget crisis hitting City Hall right now isn't bad luck — it's the predictable result of losing the intra-metro competition for tax base.

The story isn't that businesses are fleeing Texas. They're not. DFW remains the nation's top destination for corporate relocations. The problem is more embarrassing than that: businesses are fleeing Dallas for its own suburbs. AT&T to Frisco. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America abandoning downtown towers for Uptown and beyond. Companies choosing Plano and Richardson because those cities are aggressively courting them with incentives while Dallas struggles to manage homelessness, empty storefronts, and a perception of disorder that's hard to shake even when the crime data tells a different story.

Dallas Fire-Rescue is projected to exceed its budget by nearly $9 million, mostly due to unscheduled leave, mandatory overtime and higher costs for medical exams.

The Dallas Police Department is also over budget by $5.1 million...

Dallas Police Association President Sean Pease said the police overtime was not the problem. “It is the symptom of a department that has been operating short-staffed for years,” he said.

He said the timing of the city’s decision to announce a hiring freeze was ahead of salary negotiations with first responders and the FIFA World Cup, when police officers will be pulled to meet the demands of the multi-week event.

“Our officers will continue to answer the call. But the city must stop treating overtime as the issue and start addressing the real problem: not enough officers to meet the mission,” Pease said.

The fiscal math is simple and unforgiving. When your tax base migrates to the suburbs, sales tax revenue drops — and that's exactly what's happening. Dallas is now staring at a $30M+ shortfall with projections ballooning to $82M by 2027. A hiring freeze. Emergency spending cuts. Hard choices.

The city’s financial squeeze stems from a $16.4 million general fund expense overage, a $3.8 million sales tax revenue shortfall and a separate $13.8 million gap in the employee health fund.

A city that prioritizes managing its problems over attracting growth will always be playing defense. You cannot tax-and-service your way to fiscal health. At some point, a city has to ask: are we making it easy and attractive to do business here, or are we just managing decline?

The suburbs already know the answer. Dallas should too.

All quotes from: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/article/dallas-city-council-mulls-hard-choices-ahead-22225073.php

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remembertapes@reddit

It's the police budget and it always has been. We already spend more on the police budget than all other city expenses combined, and dumbass Dallas voters (lied to by the police and city officials) just voted in a law that forces the city to increase the police budget every year, even if the city is bankrupt.

The Dallas Police and their various "organizations" (slush funds) are gangsters who have been ripping off millions from the city for over a generation.

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Rahkaith@reddit

Remember police and fire departments were against that change. That was pushed by a third party org. Police department knew it was unrealistic increases and an impossible hiring timeline. Police union and department both spoke out saying to vote against it but got through anyway.

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remembertapes@reddit

Yes, but don't you feel like they could have pushed a little harder about it. At the end of the day it puts more money in their pockets.

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Rahkaith@reddit

What more could they do, police chief spoke out, union spoke out. My understanding is union sent letters to members urging to vote against, I'm fire so dont get that info directly. A lot of people don't trust and listen to police anymore, which I understand, but it means they didn't listen on this either.

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ozmox@reddit (OP)

The article implied that the reason the police budget is so high is because the department is chronically understaffed so everyone is getting paid overtime and bonuses. Cops can opt to work for a different city so you have retention issues like any other business.

If we had the right-sized force would the cost be the same, or less, but with better outcomes?

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remembertapes@reddit

If we spent a little more of that gigantic budget on public works, housing assistance, homeless outreach, etc. maybe we don't need to pay police for more cops and more overtime, especially since they're not particularly good at their jobs

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us1549@reddit

LA and California as a whole did that and the problem just got worse

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dfwpopo@reddit

Are you able to look at this with an unbiased view? You still have to account for over 4 billion dollars even without the police budget.

The proposition you are referring to is to save the joint police and fire pension that the city has been out of state compliance for decades and still continues.

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ozmox@reddit (OP)

It's about 2-5% of the budget today (homelesness, drug rehab, etc). I'd be okay spending more *if* there were accoutability. I want to see ROI. If it's just to house people idenfinitely with no plan on getting them back into the workforce, etc. it's just going to be a drain. Most homeless programs (like in LA, SFO, Seattle, Austin) don't show benficial outcomes for the amount spent.

San Antonio's Haven for Hope (campus model) has been super successful. 77% reduction in downtown homelssness, and $96M saved in jails, emergency rooms, and court costs. The SAPD saved $2 million alone from reduced arrests. Houston is another success story.

dumasymptote@reddit

This is just business shilling.

At some point, a city has to ask: are we making it easy and attractive to do business here, or are we just managing decline?

Is it that it is easier to do business in the suburbs, or is it that the suburbs have been happier giving away tax revenue to businesses?

SCORE-advice-Dallas@reddit

I'll give you a specific example: construction permits. Dallas is world famous for taking way too long to review / approve them, and for being random and arbitrary with requirements etc.

Richardson / Plano are not. They have a process, they follow the published rules, and issue valid permits quickly.

That's just 1 thing. The entire city of Dallas has problems like that, in every function.

Does the city need to be run better, absolutely. I worked at the city for a while and it’s a fucking mess.

I will however never disparage the city for refusing to give tax payer money to business owners because they need even more money.

BucketofWarmSpit@reddit

I'm also going to point the finger at Abbott, Paxton and the Texas legislature for moves like preventing cities from lowering their police department budget at all ever while also preventing cities from raising property taxes beyond about 2 cents per $100 valuation in any given year. The budget crises in cities were designed by the state government and they're working as they were designed to.

Both can be true at the same time

spongyguy24@reddit

Yeah but are they

YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit

I'd say both. The city's population has also not grown as much compared to some of its peers, like Fort Worth.

I don’t know if that is true. Looking at the north central council of governments population estimates, the amount of growth between the two cities (Dallas and ft worth) is pretty similar from 2020 to 2025. I would link the study but I don’t feel like messing around with it from my phone.

Yeah, the last five years have had more parity, but looking at the pop data on Wikipedia, cowtown had a lot more growth from 2010-2020

zeroonetw@reddit

lol. All of this is a non issue and just bs politics. A quick scan of the historical tax base, budget, and tax rates (available on the City of Dallas website) tells you any concern is all agenda driven.

gearpitch@reddit

Growth is definitely the answer, we've been stagnant over the past 15 years: the city has grown about 120k in population while dfw as a whole has grow about 2 million in that same 15 years.

But I'd also say that the approach to changing course really depends on if your view of the world is that businesses attract new people, or if population growth attracts businesses.

If it's business first, you give tax breaks to companies to attract them to Dallas and the people follow (then you get burned when they leave 10y later). If it's people first, you have to focus on increasing the housing supply and keeping housing growth/development within the city. Then once the housing is filled, we seem like a dynamic growing place for businesses to relocate.

Askmeaboutmy_Beergut@reddit

Where's John "A black hole!? Why it gotta be a black hole!? Why can't it be a white hole!?" Wiley Price when you need him? Lol!

Also can't forget, "Everybody had jobs during slavery!" when talking about the southern port bringing 60k jobs to south Dallas! Hahahahaha

Dallas is getting everything it deserves!

JWP is one of the dumbest fucking people to ever hold elected office. I don’t know how he keeps getting re-elected, the fuck has he done for his area in the decades he’s kept that seat warm lmao

Farm_Professional@reddit

We’ll revisit this article again in 20 years where a newer more soulless suburb comes in and swoops those companies from those current suburbs and Dallas will still be here.

Upstairs_Balance_464@reddit

Ah so now we’re talking about a fake budget crisis to push the whole knock down city hall thing.

These budget overruns are a tiny, tiny percentage of the total budget. A rounding error. There is no “crisis”.

seagyal@reddit

don't get me wrong - dmn isn't anything super spectacular- but if you want any local journalism to continue to exist, please don't copy and paste the bulk of an article onto reddit (even if you link to it eventually).... better to just share the link with a short quote and your own comment...

Additional-Sky-7436@reddit

The suburbs do not know the answer. They are just new. Their staffs know there is a fiscal storm coming for them as their infrastructure ages and they don't have the money to repair.

Neither does Dallas, but at least we've been able to take advantage of the past 20 years of low interest bonds. The suburbs won't get that luxury.

Still_Detail_4285@reddit

Plano has had HQs for decades now.

Ok. So what?

They still have massive infrastructure debt hanging over their heads that they can't afford. And if you think Toyota is going to bail them out and pay for their city wide infrastructure maintenance plan then you are high.

What infrastructure debt are you referring to? I looked at their latest budget 2024 and don't see any large obligations

Optimistiqueone@reddit

But aren't the suburbs also in some budget trouble, hence the upheaval to remain the DART sales tax revenue?

Also, there is a steep cost bc the businesses demand huge tax breaks to move and the burbs are giving them. So you can cut your nose to spite your face.

Not sure what the answers are but it's not a simply as this.