Dallas City Hall: Photo by Hilary Schleier.
The City of Dallas’ new proposed budget of $4.97 billion includes funding to hire hundreds of additional police officers and maintain public safety equipment as well as a large tax cut.
While the city plans to invest over $100 million on projects like street improvements, alley maintenance and sidewalks, the primary focus of the proposed budget is public safety. Out of the roughly $2 billion general fund, around $1.2 billion is allocated to safety initiatives.
The police and fire budget will go up by $78.6M while the budget for all other departments is going down by $13.5M. Additionally, 541 positions are being eliminated (none from police/fire).
The city is budgeting for 250 new police officers, 63 firefighters and over $40 million to maintain public safety equipment. The budget also includes an increase to firefighter and police officer salaries.
The largest single-year property tax reduction in modern history is also being proposed — a decrease from 73.57 cents to 70.47 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
A note at the front of the budget document explains that the FY 2024-25 budget “will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by an amount of $15,856,462, which is a 1.16 percent increase from last year’s budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is $35,687,522.”
Elected officials began looking at the budget on August 13 and will continue to hold workshops and public hearings throughout the month of September. Those dates can be seen below.
All districts will be hosting Budget Town Hall meetings starting Thursday. District 1 Councilmember Chad West is hosting two bilingual 2024-25 Budget Town Halls over the next week — one on Thursday night, and a virtual, lunch-and-learn option on Monday at noon. Anybody is welcome to attend the events to give feedback on the budget.
The Thursday, Aug. 15 event will be held at 6 p.m. at Tyler Street Church, 927 W 10th Street. The event Monday is virtual at 12 p.m., and can be joined with this link: https://dallascityhall.webex.com/dallascityhall/j.php?MTID=m121099e0a7cbcf4b323a3c785b891852
The 2024-25 Budget materials can be found here.
