Taxes

The IRS Targeted at Least Two Local Tea Party Groups by Sending Them a Really Long Questionnaire

Washington is still reeling from the revelation on Friday that the IRS has been singling out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. The news immediately drew howls of bipartisan protest, and pretty much everyone agrees that using the tax system to target political enemies is not what happens in a heal ... More >>

McKinney Sen. Ken Paxton's Tax-Credit Voucher Bill a Sneaky Way to Route Public Money to Private Religious Schools

The idea behind McKinney Senator Ken Paxton's proposed legislation really is pretty ingenious. The whole school-choice voucher idea -- essentially a guise to funnel public money to religious schools -- invariably runs afoul of constitutional challenges. So, lately, that movement has shifted its stra ... More >>

Business Lobbyists Offer Help with Fixing Deficit. Kiss Your Asses Goodbye, Old and Sick People

This country is being hoodooed by the oldest magic show trick in the book -- misdirection. The fictional crisis of entitlement spending is just a new version of the stain on Monica Lewinsky's dress, the latest cheap trick by the super-rich to turn our attention away from the truth. For a glimpse of ... More >>

At State of the City Address, Rawlings Says Dallas Doing "Very Well, Bordering On Superb"

The first time I saw Mayor Mike Rawlings deliver a prepared speech, he talked about changing the culture of southern Dallas by shooting it with bullets of economic development, so I had high hopes for his lunchtime state of the city address today at the Sheraton downtown. Other than some mild name-d ... More >>

City Hall's Cuts of 911 Put Us All at Risk From Crime and Lawsuits

The 911 problem itself is bad enough, but the mayor and the police chief are about to drive me crazy. At our house we record the news and watch it right before going to bed. It's worse than chips and spicy salsa. Night after night we are subjected to these horror stories on TV about people perishin ... More >>

California is Now Creating More Jobs Than Texas

Over the last several years, California has basically existed as a tutorial for how not to run a state government. It's faced years of crippling budget deficits, has had several of its cities declare bankruptcy, and has been hit especially hard by the recession, all with help from one of the nation' ... More >>

Tax Breaks for AAC Worked So Well the First Time, Let's Do More!

Collecting Internet Sales Taxes -- What a Great Damn Idea, Mofo

Well, crap. Look, I'm generally pro-government. You know, down with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who said, "I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization." And like any good leftie hippie-type, I just love kitschy Main Street shops that I'd definitely ride my bike to if it weren't so damn ... More >>

Developer Intends to Fill Old Dallas High School, Land With 510 Residential Units

​Now that Sylvan Thirty's out of the way ...We learned at the end of last week that Wynne/Jackson intends to turn the 105-year-old Dallas High School on Pearl and Bryan into an apartment complex -- that's on Landmark Commission's agenda this afternoon, as the developer's seeking around $923,000 in ... More >>

Suhm: Bond Package Is "Absolutely Critical Stuff." Some on Council Have Their Own Ideas.

​City Manager Mary Suhm reminded the council, again and again, by way of introduction: Today's presentation on the 2012 bond program is very, very, very, very preliminary. There will be many more meetings, including February confabs in every district. The numbers are rough, very rough -- guesstima ... More >>

Pure Imagination: At Its First Meeting, Council's Arts & Culture Committee Talks New Revenue

​I'm dialed into the inaugural meeting of the council's Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee, tasked by Mayor Mike, as you'll recall, with finding "alternative funding sources" to help make Dallas "a smart, cultured and creative city." And God bless her, Maria Munoz-Blanco, director of the city ... More >>

"Big A, Meet the Even Bigger D"

​For the second time in as many days, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pits The ATL against The City of Hate -- a common occurrence -- and rules in favor of Dallas, in part because we have toll roads to help pay for regional light rail projects that run to the suburbs, which is but a figment of a ... More >>

Council Candidate Says Angela Hunt "Embarrassed Our Entire City" By Walking Out During Tom Leppert's Farewell Speech

District 14 candidate Chad Lasseter​As he explained to us a couple weeks ago, Chad Lasseter has some grand ideas, including moving the Texas Rangers to either Fair Park or West Dallas and providing free Wi-Fi downtown. He also disagrees with District 14 council member Angela Hunt on a handful ... More >>

How's the City Spending That Tax Hike?

From last week's council briefing concerning the $6.4 million being spent by the city to clean up rights of way once tended to by TxDOT​Back when those eight council members called for that tax hike intended to keep rec centers open and library shelves stocked and parks mowed and so on, we asked A ... More >>

If Angela Hunt Decides to Run for Mayor, Bryan Place NA Founder Jim Rogers Wants the Seat

Jim Rogers​Soon as I got back to the office, Jim Rogers showed up with a press release and a photo. Rogers, the first president of the Bryan Place Neighborhood Association perched in the shadow of downtown, came by to announce that he's running for Dallas City Council -- the District 14 seat, that ... More >>

Liveblogging Today's Council Meeting During Which It'll Vote on FY2010-11 Budget

Friendship-West's Dr. Frederick Haynes, a longtime Leppert ally, spoke in favor of a tax hike: "We cannot ride first class without paying for it."​Hey y'all. I rode the elevator up to City Council Chambers this morning with Carolyn Davis, who is doing this whole Jackie O thing in a fun-collared ... More >>

Liveblogging This Morning's Packed, Star-Studded Budget Workshop at City Hall

​Bon matin, Mes Amis de le Parc Qui Est Unfair. Overflow crowd this morning at the City Council Budget Meeting in 6ES, and Tom Leppert, pin-striped as ever, has just told the packed house to sit tight while they figure out what to do with everyone. Atmosphere is stuffy and contentious -- this is t ... More >>

Talking Streets, Parks and Pools At Last Night's Budget Town Hall at the Flight Museum

Photos by Patrick MichelsPastor Lynn Harper of Promised Land Missionary Baptist Church speaks at last night's town hall meeting at the Frontiers of Flight Museum. "There are people being affected by these choices that we're making," Harper said, "so people, stand up, speak up and let your voice be h ... More >>

"Indefinite Delay" to "Could Be Preserved," the Resurrection of Orange Line to DFW Airport?

​On June 22, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's higher-ups sent the bad news: Three projects had been derailed by that $3-billion drop in sales tax receipts: the section of the Orange Line that's supposed to run from Irving to Terminal A at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the Blue Line extension ... More >>

The Latest in a Series, Apparently, On "How Texas Is Dominating the Recession"

​First, there was The Economist wondering how Texas had kicked California's economic ass. Then, Fortune examined how "Texas powered through the global fiscal crisis." Now it's The Atlantic's turn at the plate with this piece that wonders how in the heck "Texas is experiencing something like an eco ... More >>

Call It a Tea Party, Serve Beer: On Tax Day, Getting Populist at the Ballpark

Patrick MichelsThe Tax Day Tea Partier's sophomore effort drew the largest crowd QuikTrip Park's ever hosted.Heading west on I-30 from downtown last night, you'd have passed two stretches of stalled traffic -- the first, along the access road just across the Trinity, made up of the grumbling masses ... More >>

Wine, Wine, Wine (Beer Too): Once More, a Petition Push to Make All of Dallas Wet

Flickr user: lopolis​A little while ago, Rudy Bush posted an item about a new push to allow beer and wine sales citywide, thus eliminating the so-called "dry" parts of town in which booze can't be sold for off-site consumption. Big news, to be sure, but also old news: I called Gary Huddleston, the ... More >>

Two Months Into Budget, City's Already $4 Mil Down on Guesstimated Sales Tax Income

Sam MertenFIrst Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans​Perhaps you saw the story in the morning paper: According to the state comptroller's office, Dallas pulled in sales tax revenue totaling $14.5 million in November 2009. And while that's a considerable plunge from same-time-last-year's intake ($18.3 ... More >>

How Much Tax Revenue Does Dallas Stand to Make from the 2010 NBA All-Star Game?

​That's the question answered by this briefing that's been prepared for the city council's Economic Development Committee on Tuesday morning. The short answer: The 2010 NBA All-Star Game is expected to generate about $2.49 million in tax revenue for the city. But keep in mind, should the council g ... More >>

Commission to Introduce Idea of "Tax Holiday" in South and West Dallas

Statler, Deep Ellum and Crozier Tech Among Preservation Dallas' Endangered

The City's Running a Little Light on Dough -- Got $50 Mil to Spare?

Land Shark: Larry Hamilton on DCAD's "Excessive" New Downtown Valuations

Look Out, Don Hill. Because Allen McGill Isn't Going Down Alone.

Should One Deduction Lead to Another?

Nincompoopos Mentis

¡Ask a Mexican!

Hotel Taxed

Save This City

Korean Barbecue

Forbes: Wright Ain't Right

He Knows Nothing. NOTHING.

Credit Risks

Default

City council could cost us $20 million by tanking the Merc deal

Sugar Ray

Why council members love Mr. Hunt so much

The Lone Ranger

Right, but not quite right, Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher is reforming county government while infuriating her Republican colleagues

Rent a Cop

Or else

Sticker Shock

Our bill finally comes in for the Kirk/Ware era

Down the Drain

Plus: Stars in His Eyes; No Military, No Peace; The Havard Legend

Waging Battle

Proponents of a living-wage ordinance snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Make 'em pay

Dallas activists fight
for a living wage from city contractors

Holy handouts

How taxpayers -- including you, if you hit the flea market in Canton -- are subsidizing the Christian right

Perfect game

When Reid Ryan wanted Round Rock voters to build a stadium for his minor-league baseball team, he turned to the one pitchman no good Texan could refuse -- his dad, Nolan

Payback time

Anti-poverty agency risks shutdown if it doesn't come clean with the state

Early thaw

Hope is renewed for four downtown housing projects