The Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote on a $5.2 billion proposed budget, which may involve some difficult cuts.
The planned budget is larger than last year’s, but in an effort to cut the tax rate on property owners, Mayor Eric Johnson pushed for the closure of a library on Wednesday, prompting some councilmembers to object.
The proposed expenditure plan already lowers the city’s tax rate, but the mayor claims it is insufficient, citing the recent building of a new city library barely a mile away as justification for closing the Skillman Southwestern Library in Northeast Dallas.
“It was recommended to us based on data, a data-driven city, making data-driven policy decisions, that this dated library was not operating by any standard of the usage of the word efficiency,” according to Johnson.
The mayor stated that closing the older of the two libraries will demonstrate to people that the city’s authorities are serious about fiscal restraint.
However, several council members were dissatisfied with his proposal to utilize the $386,000 saved by closing the library to keep community pools open in Southern Dallas.
“I believe it pits southern Dallas against northern Dallas, and it forces communities to compete with one another when both deserve support,” said Jaime Resendiz, a city councilmember.
Last-minute effort to trim the budget results in ugly comments.
A last-minute effort to cut the projected budget for next year resulted in some heated exchanges between the mayor and council members.
The mayor stated that his 11th-hour plea to close the library prompted some anonymous council members to advise that he instead propose cutting city-sponsored private security for his family.
Johnson said suggestions that his family’s private security could be reduced were insulting.
“I just, I’m trying not to take it personally,” said Johnson, “that the security detail that protects children is opposed to this financing. I can’t imagine how somebody would accomplish it in their minds.”
Finally, the amendment to close the Skillman Southwestern Library passed.
The projected $5.2 billion budget would reduce the tax rate by 0.5%.
Dallas’ planned budget would contain:
$162 million for street improvement.
$10 million to address homelessness, including 350 police recruits.
Police and firefighters raise their
Leaders of the Dallas Police Association are still urging councilmembers to raise the beginning salary even higher, claiming that $81,000 ranks just 12th among North Texas communities and will drive the best recruits to other departments.
