{"id":440717,"date":"2026-09-19T05:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/440717\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T05:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:20:20","slug":"dallas-council-failed-the-budget-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/440717\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas council failed the budget test"},"content":{"rendered":"

A divided Dallas City Council passed a flawed, $5.7 billion operating and capital budget <\/a>Wednesday that will likely make future financial decisions<\/a> more difficult. It contained too many zombies \u2014 items that had been cut or killed but were miraculously revived late in the process. It left a major item, the future of City Hall, unaddressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas cities are living in an era of tightening financial constraints. The federal government is providing less funding; state leaders are rightly tightening down on cities\u2019 ability to keep getting more from taxpayers. Dallas has the added burden of a charter amendment<\/a> that requires raising police pay and pension contributions while competing against immaculate exurbs with lower tax and crime rates. Attitudes and actions have to change.<\/p>\n

As they have in previous years, council members spent an inordinate amount of time haggling over relatively small amounts of money. They avoided unpopular moves like permanently draining older, less-used community swimming pools or shuttering some less-visited libraries. They declined to trim hours at some recreation centers. Because council members refused to face those decisions this year, they\u2019ll be back in August 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, issues that need intense attention received less than they deserved. More than half of next year\u2019s $2.05 billion general fund is dedicated to police and fire department pay, overtime and pension contributions. Public safety is a core service and needs adequate funding, but it also deserves tough scrutiny because it consumes so much of the general fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2026, the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue went millions over budget on overtime pay.\u00a0KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported<\/a> that dozens of police officers made well over $100,000 just in overtime last year. Some of that was reimbursed by grants, NBC5 reported. And the actual number of overtime hours worked has declined. But as the city hires more officers, it should keep working to bring overtime down. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dallas Fire-Rescue<\/a> also incurred significant, though declining, overtime costs even as it has grown its ranks. Dallas hasn\u2019t grown, meanwhile. How can Dallas improve its efficiency without hurting effectiveness or safety?<\/p>\n

The city did drop one employee health insurance plan, which should help control that expense. We urge city leaders to look seriously at the pension crisis and consider transitioning the civilian pension program into a defined contribution program.<\/p>\n

The income side of the budget<\/a> equation also needs attention. Aging cities must find ways to raise revenue without resorting to gimmicks \u2014 like electronic billboards in parks \u2014 and without overwhelming residents and businesses with fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higher density development along commercial corridors helps keep homeowners\u2019 property taxes lower because it generates proportionately more tax revenue. It may be time to allow tax increment finance districts to expire so the whole city can benefit from all the revenue they generate. Dallas can manage its financial challenges \u2014 if council members start facing them now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A divided Dallas City Council passed a flawed, $5.7 billion operating and capital budget Wednesday that will likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-440717","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\/440717","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=440717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}