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Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax proposed a $4.35 billion city budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2021-22. This compares to the $3.85 billion budgeted for the previous fiscal year 2020-21 and the $4.01 billion that was actually spent.
The city has scheduled neighborhood meetings for citizen input. All meetings for East Dallas council districts will be held virtually. Dates and instructions for participating can be found here.
The scheduled meetings are:
Aug. 12, 5-6 p.m.: District 14 (Paul Ridley) and District 2 (Jesse Moreno)
Aug. 17, 6-7 p.m.: District 9 (Paula Blackmon) and District 7 (Adam Bazaldua)
Aug. 19, 6-7 p.m.: District 9 (Paula Blackmon)
Aug. 24, 5-6 p.m.: District 14 (Paul Ridley) and District 9 (Paula Blackmon)
There is a lot to digest in Broadnax’s summary. Highlights include:
- Hiring 250 additional police officers
- Adding more emergency operators to achieve goal of an answer within 10 seconds of dialing 911
- Hire an additional 31 code inspectors
- Spend $3 million to add Wi-Fi to 63 park facilities
- Increase minimum wage to $15.51/hour, increase sanitation truck drivers pay from $16.50/hour to $20.00/hour, add cameras to sanitation trucks and transition to a quarterly pick-up of bulky trash
- Decrease the property tax rate by .3 cents resulting $4.6 million in citizen tax savings
- Increase the property tax exemption for homeowners over 65 to $107,000
The City Council hopes to adopt the spending plan at their Sept. 22 meeting. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2021.
Read more news about Blackmon and Ridley here.
