Budget season is officially underway at Dallas City Hall, and Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax offered local reporters a sneak peek Thursday afternoon at his draft document.
The city manager’s $4.63 billion recommended budget represents a $138 million, or 8.1 percent, increase over the current year’s $4.51 billion budget.
Broadnax said he’s recommending a 0.65-cent property tax decrease, basing the budget on a new rate of 73.93 cents per $100 assessed valuation. The current City of Dallas property tax rate is 74.58 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
daltxrealestate.com joined a handful of other local reporters Thursday for a high-level look at the budget and Q&A with the city manager.
Broadnax answered questions about housing and homelessness initiatives, employee pay, the short-term rental enforcement team, and allocations for increased cybersecurity measures, among other things.
He also touched on the city’s plan to hire 290 new police officers and offer an incentive retention plan for those close to retirement. A $14.3 million increase is recommended in overtime police officer pay.
Broadnax’s recommended budget includes 100 new positions for the fire department and increased overtime pay of $22 million.
A 5 percent pay increase is recommended for sworn civil service positions. Other employees could see 3 percent merit increases.
Broadnax’s recommended budget and all other related documents can be found here.
Additionally, the public can weigh in on how they want their tax dollars to be spent. Budget town hall meetings are scheduled in every City Council district from Aug. 10-24.
The Dallas City Council meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, for its first budget workshop of the season.
“We wanted to give you a preview or a high-level understanding of what you will hear from us, not just Tuesday but in many of the discussions that will go on for the next month and a half as we walk through, with the council, the city manager’s recommended budget,” Broadnax told reporters on Thursday.
Dallas City Manager’s Plan For Property Taxes
Although the recommended budget and tax rate could be sliced and diced in the upcoming public hearings, a couple of things we know for sure: Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has vowed to lower the property tax rate with the goal of having the lowest rate in North Texas.
We also know that property appraisals — a figure over which the City Council has no control — have increased by 10.5 percent this year.
Broadnax said Thursday that 57.2 percent of the general fund budget is derived from property taxes.
“Our property tax base did increase year-over-year last year up to $198.3 billion over the prior year,” he said.
The 65-cent decrease Broadnax is recommending, if adopted, would mark the eighth consecutive year the City of Dallas has lowered property taxes.
More savings could be on the way as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed an $18 billion tax cut for Texas property owners. After months of debate in the House and Senate over who had the better bill, Abbott on July 22 added his signature to Senate Bill 2, the property tax cuts measure, and Senate Bill 3, a franchise tax relief bill. A third measure, House Joint Resolution 2, will go before voters in November.
Housing And Infrastructure Budget Priorities
Broadnax answered our questions about housing and neighborhood revitalization during his 30-minute press conference Thursday.
“One of the things we’ve done is add to our senior home repair program,” he said. “Our federal dollars have been approved and will be submitted to [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development], which will relatively be the same offerings as prior years. There will be an additional $6 million available associated with our new infrastructure investment fund based on expiring [Tax Increment Financing Districts]. Resources that go into this fund can be utilized to support infrastructure particularly associated with housing in our equity priority areas.”
The proposed budget also includes $500,000 for economic development deals which could include multi-family housing and mixed-use development.
“We’re also going to spend half a million dollars investing in an adaptive reuse and infill housing study to better help us understand how we can activate and implement our own lots or work with private sector-owned lots to figure out how we can improve neighborhoods on an infill basis or from an adaptive reuse perspective,” Broadnax said.
The city manager’s recommended budget includes the following infrastructure upgrades:
- $138 million to pave 787 street lane miles
- $2 million for alley improvements
- $4.4 million for bridge repairs
- $5.3 million for sidewalks
The Office of Historic Preservation will be consolidated into Planning and Urban Design. Funding has been allocated for updates to the building and development codes. About $1.5 million is recommended for contractual services to decommission homeless encampments.
The city is budgeting $1.4 million for a short-term rental regulations enforcement team “to work with our short-term rentals that are allowed in our city,” Broadnax said. The dedicated code compliance team will be expanded.
The City of Dallas also is preparing for a 2024 bond election which will address housing.
Stay tuned to daltxrealestate.com for more Dallas budget updates.
