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For the first time, Dallas’ annual budget could top $5 billion.
That’s based on the first draft of the city’s operating budget which was released Friday afternoon. If approved, the funding plan will go into effect at the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. The budget creation was managed by City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert – her second year leading the process after taking over for her predecessor in the city’s top job.
At 753 pages, we aren’t going to pretend we read the proposal cover to cover. But we were able to read through enough to see a few notable changes in how the city plans to prioritize funding in the year ahead; a change that was necessitated by shrinking revenue streams and a city charter amendment that mandates increased funding for Dallas’ police department.
“It is going to be a painful summer,” Tolbert told the City Council back in May, when the city realized that challenges to property tax assessments were going to leave Dallas $6.7 million short of expected revenue. “There are no sacred cows when it comes to the approach we have to take looking at the budget.”
In an introductory message, Tolbert wrote that changes in funding for the upcoming year were made by prioritizing the departments and services that align with feedback left in the most recent community survey. The Dallas City Council will begin holding town halls to hear community feedback on the budget this Thursday, and a vote will be held on a final plan next month.
Your Water Bill is Going Up
The proposed budget mentions, on eight occasions, that for the tenth year in a row the city is reducing the property tax rate. Seven of those mentions are in the first 70 pages. Starting Oct. 1, you could be spending half a penny less per $100 valuation thanks to City Hall.
Don’t spend it all in one place.
Realistically, a half-penny property tax reduction won’t be felt significantly for most homeowners, but for the city, that tax break will represent $11.1 million in forgone revenue. They’ll be making it up elsewhere.
According to the city’s plan, the average Dallas resident should expect to see their water bill go up by 5% (around $4 each month) starting next fiscal year. Fees associated with stormwater and sanitation are expected to go up too, around $1 a month combined. (As you probably imagined, those fee hikes aren’t mentioned nearly as often as the property tax relief bit.)
A $5 increase to your monthly check to the city may not sound like much, but the higher prices come after several budget seasons in a row of water and sanitation bills being targeted as a revenue stream for the city. The budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, for instance, introduced a 4.4% increase to sanitation fees for a $35.81 monthly bill. Just two years later, the proposed 25-26 budget puts that cost at $40.09.
And that growth isn’t projected to stop anytime soon. In the city’s projections, water bills are expected to grow by around 2.8% each year for the next five years, meaning by the time 2030 hits, you’ll be spending $10 more each month on water than you do now. Stormwater fees are expected to grow by 6.8 percent in that same forecast period.
Closures to City Services
As Tolbert said in May, some feelings were going to be hurt when the new budget came out. We imagine that community activists who last summer worked to keep the Skillman Southwestern Branch Library and Dallas’ community pools off the chopping block are feeling a bit scorned.
Both facilities were slated for closure in early drafts of this past year’s budget, but outrage from neighbors helped keep them safe. Now, though, the proposed budget lists both the Skillman library and an unknown number of city-operated pools for closure.
The budget draft is a bit more specific in discussing how funding changes are expected to affect Dallas Public Libraries. In addition to Skillman being shuttered, the draft states that in the next fiscal year, DPL will be expected to identify up to four additional library branches as candidates for closure. The funding saved from each location, the plan states, will be used to help expand hours at other library locations. (Last year, reporting showed that closing Skillman would save the city around $500,000 annually.)
The budget also plans to “realize salary savings” within the library department “through position and hiring management,” and reduce the library’s homeless engagement team.
The document does not state which of the city’s nine community pools, which opened this summer but had reduced days and hours, will be slated for closure. WFAA reports that two pools face the axe. Facility age and attendance will be determining factors.
Recreation center hours are also expected to be reduced – or optimized, if you want it in city speak – in the coming year.
Increased Funding for Dallas Police
In all, the city’s general fund increased 3.2% from last year, and the majority of the financing is being put towards the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue budgets.
In addition to requiring increased staffing in the Dallas Police Department, the Dallas City Charter amendment Proposition U, which was passed by voters last November, mandates that 50% of new revenue be put towards the first responder departments, and requires that additional funding go towards starting salaries for officers.
Tolbert’s proposed budget takes care of that, by outlining the funding to end next year with 3,424 officers in the force, the highest number since 2016. The budget would also bring starting salaries to $81,232 annually. The Dallas Police Department website lists $75,397 as the department’s current starting salary. In the last five years, officer starting salaries have increased nearly 50%.
The budget outlines plans for an unspecified number of DPD employees in administrative roles to move back into “operational” ones.
Responding to Community Complaints
If you spent much time listening in at the horseshoe this past year, you’ll have heard two issues get brought up again and again: deferred maintenance on city buildings and the need for code compliance enforcement during the evening hours.
The budget draft has plans to address both.
First, $14.5 million is earmarked for “critical infrastructure failures” across city facilities, including $2 million for specifically public safety-related buildings, twice the amount that was projected last year. The funds will be used to fix up “City Hall, fire stations, libraries, arts and cultural facilities and recreation centers,” and half a million of the funding will be used to specifically target needed repairs on existing solar energy systems.
Then there is the problem of noise complaints.
Noise complaints are a code compliance problem, but the department has repeatedly told the City Council that their operational hours are not conducive to shutting down a rowdy, Saturday-night party. In the budget proposal, Tolbert suggests allocating $244,838 to the Nighttime Entertainment Strike Team, which will operate under the code compliance umbrella. The funding will help add five positions to the team, and next year the department is expected to receive $334,612 for the task force.
A dedicated compliance team will be based in Deep Ellum, the budget states.
