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5/22/08 |
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Dallas Budge Deficit. |
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David Tuthill |
In
Dallas city manager suggests reducing some services to fund others
(by Dave Levinthal, DallasNews.com, 5/21/8) reports
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!).
City staff will be scurrying to find possible
areas to cut services to the public,
such as libraries and park services.
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I know just the piece of fluff to cut. The
Dallas City Council knows, too.
They just approved floating revenue bonds for it around the tune of
$43 Million. What is
this piece of bad government? Why it is a
convention center
hotel that we must have!
We have to have it so
bad that we can?t even trust the city attorneys to come up with a convoluted
wording (like they did for the Trinity River Toll Road)
for Dallas Voters to vote upon. |
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5/23
Darryl Baker:
I appreciated David's observations
about the City's deficit.
His
closing remarks lacked one important point.
Over 70% of City employees do not
live in the city limits. It stands to
reason that many decisions are made in a vacuum, or in a suburban
context, or an "I don't care attitude". It particularly
troubles me that over 50% of
assistant directors do not live in the city.
It's like being asked to eat in a
restaurant where the cooks and staff would not
eat. Since they are "at will" employees, they are exempt from the State
law that (wrongly) says it's OK for police,
fire and rank and file employees to live outside of the very city that
provides their livelihoods. |
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I also wonder about the
conflict of interest the city attorneys face when voicing opinions about
a council member?s recuse of discussions of this
issue. My thoughts are that the city wants a
hotel. The city attorney's job is to see that the
council?s wishes are for fulfilled. Therefore,
any opinion voiced by them is suspect
I look at the problems with the new city water billing system and the police
dispatch system that at last report will cost millions
more tax dollars to correct and make functional. What
wonders of bad governmental management will a proposed
city owned hotel produce? After all,
just look at these high dollar projects that the city staff has shown their
skill in.
What about the appraisal price of this land?
$7 million vs $43 million. I
am impressed that the Appraisal District
(DCAD) came out to do a quick readjustment of the
property value. Lets hope they get
around to some of those other pieces of Downtown
commercial property to up their value, too.
Historically,
residential property owners have shouldered the cost of property taxes while
commercial properties got away with lower
market values.
DCAD has been quite creative in their ?what if?
attitude towards raising my property values. "What
if you sold your property to a developer to build a McMansion,
your value would be this higher value!"
Commercial property owners hire tax agents
who stand up to the Appraisal
District, as opposed to
lonely homeowners. So, DCAD
focuses on homeowners!
We deserve better from our elected local government officials and the city staff
whose salaries our tax dollars pay. Regretfully,
they lack responsibility and accountability of the consequences
resulting from their decisions.
After all, it is only tax dollars that
are wasted. We all know that even in a bad
economy and rising prices (inflation) there is always more where those dollars
came from.
David W. Tuthill
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