City Mailer on Tax Abatements by Referendum   3/23/09
David Tuthill

The campaign mailer from City Hall pictures a crumbling downtown Dallas, the result of not giving away tax abatements to the true owners of Dallas, developers.

I dug out other past mailers pushing City Hall big ticket projects:  (1) Trinity River with sail boats on it (minus a Trinity Toll Road);  (2) last year's mailer showing a well maintained toll road with trees inside the levies.  Just a couple of the long line of City Hall sponsored fiction.

A few weeks ago, a memo from a major international bank made the national news regarding federal bailout funds, generally stating ?you can give us (the banking industry) tax dollars now or wait until we really mess things up and pay us later?.  Applying that sentiment locally, the pro tax abatement faction says ?if the city council can?t grant tax unlimited abatements willy-nilly to developers then the whole city will go to hell in a hand basket!?

Am I to infer from the mailer that the maintenance and upkeep for all of these privately owned buildings is the responsibility of Dallas taxpayers and not the owners of those privately owned buildings?

Delving into the mailer, I noted the statement ?Dallas has a can do reputation for fiscal responsibility?.  That made me gag.

How can you paint a local city government with a $100 million budget deficit as fiscal responsible?

Fiscal responsibility?  Plans to cut essential services in favor of high dollar over-budget projects.

Fiscal responsibility?  A city owned convention hotel.

Fiscal responsibility?  A controversial toll road with a record budget breaking cost.

Fiscal responsibility?  Suspension bridges over what normally is a dry flood plain.

The toll road and suspension bridges projects have no cap on the costs involved that will be paid by Dallas taxpayers.  

Not surprisingly, the artist?s rendition of a decaying Dallas in the pro-tax abatement mailer does not show the proposed suspension bridges, the Trinity Toll road or and the convention center hotel.

If you ever watch on cable or listen on 101.1 WRR a city council meeting, you are treated to the council continual granting abatements to developers.  It is Christmas every week down at city hall with the city council acting as a big Santa Claus passing out tax abatements as presents.  This compounds the tax burden for homeowners in that commercial properties are historically undervalued.  Note the disclosure of the sales price of the proposed convention hotel land ($7 million) on the county appraisal records vs. what Dallas taxpayers paid for it ($40 million).  

City Hall claims forcing voter approval for $1+ million abatements might scare away new business in Dallas.  Compare that to last year when the city council forced Woodard Paint & Body out of business on Ross Avenue and the year before when a councilman tried to force out Hollywood Doors from its location.  That kind of council action will scare off new business. 

The Dallas Independent School District is helping scare businesses that might relocate here, too.  Unless, we grant them monies from our water bills like we did for AT&T?s move last year!

We see how responsive our elected officials are to voter initiatives by the way they've reacted to the proposed vote on a city owned convention hotel.  They are attempting to ram it down taxpayers' throat by starting work on the hotel before after the public votes.

We have individuals in local government who act like spoiled children that are constantly in trouble and misbehaving who resist any attempt by their parents (taxpayers) to control their actions.

If City Hall wants to point blame for this initiative to take back our local government and control their wanton spending, politicians and bureaucrats have only to look at themselves in the mirror.  Until they have a track record of responsible city spending, this initiative is what it takes to resolve this problem.

With the City Attorney's creativity in wording of past citizen initiatives, I imagine this proposed ordinance on tax abatements will have little effect on how businesses is done at City Hall.  Instead of one abatement valued at $1+ Million, they will break them down into a series of little abatements for a developer each under 1 Million.  But, when added up - well, you know

Yes, those New York unions from New York are plotting against us, too.  It is sad that it takes someone from out of town to help the citizens attempt to wrestle control from the developers and give City Hall back to the citizens.

I wonder if they are using our tax dollars to finance this latest mailing?

Is it those funds that they are paying former representative Fred Hill who is now lobbying for them down in Austin to a tune of around $600K per year of local tax dollars?


David W. Tuthill