6/12/9   DALLAS 2009 BUDGET
David Tuthill

The Dallas Morning News reports that the Dallas City budget may be $50 Million off, resulting in cuts to services to prevent possible tax rate increase (despite the increase in residential property values EVEN in a down housing market).  The city staff will be scurrying to find possible areas to cut services to the public, such as libraries and park services.

I look at the problems with the new city water billing system and the police dispatch system that will cost more tax dollars (millions) to correct and make functional.  What wonders of bad governmental management will the proposed city owned hotel produce?   After all, just look at these high dollar projects where city staff has shown their skill.

Oops! Deja vu! That was last year 2008 budget shortfall!  This year City Hall has truly out done itself!!  They are over budget upwards of $190 Million!  Truly, they have been hard at work.  Once they corralled the 2008 budget, they seem to have gone whole hog on more spending of our tax dollars! 

One of the big items I recall from last year was the purchase of a very large plasma TV to welcome visitors to City Hall at the tune of around $69,995.00!  City manager Suhm noted that this was only part of $500,000.00 expenditures to make City Hall more welcoming to visitors!

And the solution of this budget mess?  Why more cuts to services and more fee increases! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

One would think that they would have learned from 2008.  An old saying says "a cat that sits on a hot stove will not do so again".  Not so with our city council.  It reminds me of those sociological experiments with primates where they have a boss monkey and a subordinate monkey.  The subordinate monkey does the task and the boss monkey gets the reward.  In our situation when the subordinate monkey (city council) messes up the boss monkey (taxpayer) gets an electrical shock.  After a few shocks, the boss monkey/taxpayer is a nervous wreck as the subordinate monkey bumbles along making more mistakes.  There is no negative reward to the subordinate monkey/city council; they just continue the same old song and dance.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed reports of the burst of the housing bubble that has bleed into the financial sector.  Record home foreclosures in North Texas.   The banking industry was on the brink of collapse partially due to the housing mess.  All we heard from The DMN and the city governments is that it's not happening here like a mantra.  The reality cannot be dispelled by their chants. 

There's an old naval adage "red skies in the morning sailors take warning".  A prudent sailor would note the conditions of the seas (housing market and mortgage financial system over the past several years) and batten down the hatches (take actions that would be economically prudent in their spending); but not our City Hall.  It's not happening here.

We see projects that smell like a dead fish and are guaranteed to be over budget, like the Trinity Toll Road.  Sand in the levees threatens certification of our levees (and pending requirement of flood insurance for those property owners adjoining the Trinity River).

Fair Park has been depleted of museums/venues that use to be the mainstay of that area. The Age of Steam Train Museum is moving to Frisco,  Music Hall venues are moving to the Arts District Windspere Opera House.  The Health and Science Museum is moving to the high dollar Victory Park (an area that for most Dallas residents is so over priced that it caters only to the ultra riche).  The once vibrant West end is showing signs of anemia due to the Victory Park.

Victory Park has undergone some money problems of it's own, with many high dollar restaurants folding and tales of low pedestrian traffic except during events at the AA Arena.  German investors (U.S. Treuhand) have taken ownership of a premier building once owned by Hillwood Development.  Per WSJ (6/3/9) the Mandarin-Oriental Hotel Group is scraping it's plans for a luxury development in Victory Park because the city is over-developed in luxury, both hotel and residential.  This was a news item that failed to make it into The DMN.  I am sure the convention center hotel will fit well in this mix.

It gripes me that the average citizen of Dallas is unable to foot the bill for a $100.00 plus per person evening at Victory Park.  A fact that is beginning to dawn upon those who champion Victory Park.  Makes me wonder why the emphasis has been made towards this project at the expense of other areas of the city?

There are two fallacies about funding Dallas projects: 

That they will grow the economy or that future growth will pay for current budget excesses.

That visitors to Dallas will also be a major source of revenue to pay for said excesses.

We need to get away from this mindset and live within our means.

Our City Hall seems intent on being as badly managed and unresponsive to taxpayers as the the DISD trustees, who continue to hold a tight death grip on their power despite years of scandals.

We are ill served by our local elected officials at all levels.

Like the city council does, keep telling yourself that it is not happening here.  Don't worry be happy!?

David W. Tuthill