David Tuthill

The ?tax hike lobby? is down at City Hall. While I do not have the free time to spend at City Hall myself, I will share my opinions with you on a tax hike.

My house was hit by an appraisal increase, while the McManison next door had a value decrease of around $274,000 (a reduction that is 62% of my property value). Most all the houses in my block had a decrease that put them at or below their 2008 (pre-housing bubble) value -- except mine. Apparently, it was the 2009 resale of 3 lots that were scrapped on or before 2007. One was bankrupt builder. The lots are presently sporting for sale signs after their 2009 sale! The land values are based on real estate speculators' bets, and I get to pay for it in higher taxes due to the way the DCAD sets land values. A rate increase is icing on the tax cake!

1		*You don?t raise taxes in a recession.* We have unemployment, bad housing (that will not get better soon). In plain words, ?people are hurting and afraid of loosing their jobs and houses and you don?t kick people when they are down by a tax hike?. While a tax increase hits homeowners, those who rent will get their rents increased as the tax burden is passed on to them by their landlords.

2		A tax rate increase will divert a household?s money from other spending that would benefit Dallas businesses, and sales tax revenue. Purchases of durable goods or other spending that benefit business will be postponed or cancelled. Thereby, passing the recessionary effects on through the local economy, possibly resulting in other business failures as the economy struggles to regain footing

3		What, if any, guarantee is there that the monies from a tax increase will go to libraries, rec centers, pools, streets, etc.? Nothing! Politicians and professional city administrators can?t live within the existing revenue base in good times or in the current bad times.

4		A tax increase in bad economic times will not go away in good economic times. It will become the new revenue base. Remember that they had a tax increase last year by taxing Atmos Energy?s pipe lines, which cost was passed on to gas customers in Dallas in their gas bills. That tax was SPECIFICALLY FOR rec centers (and libraries?). It was Councilman Ron Natinsky?s brainchild, and the council jumped on.

5		The proposed Operating Budget is $1.93 BILLION! The Capital Budget is an additional $822.2 MILLION! 2011 total for both Operating and Capital is $2.75 BILLION! That is a big bunch of money! Those who want a tax increase are saying ?it's not enough?. When is enough? At what point can the citizens expect the city to live within it?s means? Never, if you keep filling the leak in a pool with water (tax money). The pool kind of stays filled, but the added water??

6		After past budget cuts and infusions of tax monies, the city has historically never shown any indication to have learned from the spending budget process but has promptly gone off and squandered more money. There seems to be a disconnect from the budget process and day to day operations. One of my favorites happened in 2008 after a small budget shortfall, the city spent $500,000 on a giant TV to welcome visitors to city hall! Hiring consultants to help the city convince itself that it knows what it is doing is also troubling in that it indicates in power do not have a firm grasp of what is going on.

Every time the council has addressed the budget cuts, their next words are about pursuing questionable fluff projects (toll roads, suspension bridges, shopping malls (Red Bird), decking Woodall Rogers, the opera and the arts district projects). It seems libraries, rec centers, street repairs, pools etc are lowest on the council's priorities.

I do not trust the city nor do I feel their neglect in managing the city over the past several difficult years justifies a tax increase. They use basic services as a hostage much like we hear about extremists in the Middle East.

David W. Tuthill