Inside Texas Politics<\/a>. \u201cBut the important thing is we\u2019ve got the President of the United States coming to Dallas. We\u2019ve got legislators. We\u2019ve got attendees. We\u2019ve got protestors. But the important thing is that residents of Dallas and any visitor to Dallas stay safe. So, we\u2019ve got to step up and fulfill our duty.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Council Member says she\u2019s been told to expect around 20,000 visitors. So, the economic benefit over just a two day period could be substantial.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why she couldn\u2019t care less about the optics of a Republican event being held in a city that leans Democrat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that we\u2019ve got a convention center under construction. And we need heads and beds. We need HOT tax, that\u2019s hotel occupancy tax. And we need sales tax. So, I would say that regardless of how you may feel any other way, we need visitors to Dallas to help fuel our coffers,\u201d explained Willis.<\/p>\n
And the city could use the help.<\/p>\n
Dallas leaders are considering a $5.6 billion budget proposal that closed a $51 million hole by eliminating nearly 300 positions, including more than 100 that are currently filled. It also slightly lowers the property tax rate by 0.10 cents.<\/p>\n
Council Member Willis advocates that the city must continue to investigate its spending and streamline city government to save money wherever possible.<\/p>\n
And she warns residents not to expect anything different in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u201cTimes have changed. And so, this is our new normal. It\u2019s not going to be different next year. It\u2019s just going to keep evolving this way,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, our two main sources of revenue are property tax and sales tax. And there has been a slowing of that growth everywhere. And so, that\u2019s something we have to look at. But is looking at government efficiency and effectiveness and performance of programs ever a bad idea? No. We need to be doing that all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
We asked Willis if she would support raising taxes to avoid some cuts and she told us she doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary. The Council Member argues that managing growth, maximizing the workforce with slight changes such as moving some from full time to part time, and leveraging technology such as AI makes raising taxes unnecessary.<\/p>\n
Council Members are scheduled to vote on the budget plan Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
We also spoke to Willis about a planned $800 million mixed-use facility that would be built inside her District 13 at Preston and Royal. The project would also include a hotel and condo towers. Those two towers could be 240 feet tall. Current zoning allows for up to 54 feet.<\/p>\n
The city plan commission approved the project. And the full council could vote on it as soon as Oct. 14.<\/p>\n
*Editor’s Note: After this interview was published, a neighborhood group informed WFAA that the council vote originally scheduled for Sept. 9 had been rescheduled for Oct. 14.<\/p>\n
But residents opposed to the project have threatened a recall effort against Willis if she supports the project.<\/p>\n
We asked Willis if she\u2019s decided how she will vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still working with the applicant. I\u2019m still having meetings with residents. So, we are still in a listening mode as that moves closer to council,\u201d answered the Council Member. \u201cI am focused on the long term stability of not only the district I represent, but the city of Dallas. And so, especially in the situation we\u2019re in with our new normal of the budget, you got to focus on long term stability and not short term pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gay Donnell Willis also tells us she\u2019s still in \u201clistening mode\u201d as it relates to a controversial housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-421399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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