Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote on the city’s FY 2023-24 budget and adopt the tax rate on the same day after hearing from the community.
The overview
In early August, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax proposed a $4.63 billion city budget for FY 2023-24, with a general fund budget of $1.84 billion.
Since then, City Council voted to adopt a maximum tax rate of $0.7393 per $100 valuation. The rate is around half a cent lower than the FY 2022-23 rate, which is $0.7458 per $100 valuation.
On Sept. 6, City Council used an unofficial straw vote system to amend the budget proposal and lower the proposed tax rate to $0.7357 per $100 valuation. The amendments included reducing the police officer hiring goal from 290 to 250, eliminating 147 city staff positions that have been vacant for a year or more, reducing the city’s allocated budget for its human resources and communications departments, and eliminating funding for a monthly car stipend for City Council members.
Some context
Some City Council members, including Mayor Eric Johnson, have continually pushed to adopt a lower tax rate to account for property value growth. Because of the growth, many residents would still be paying higher tax bills than the previous year despite the originally proposed lower rate of $0.7393 per $100 valuation.
Lowering property taxes is one of Johnson’s top priorities as mayor. In June, he said he wants Dallas to have the lowest property tax rate of any major city in the region, which he added would enable more people to live and work in the city.
Get involved
Dallas City Council will meet at 9 a.m. Sept. 20 at City Hall to vote on the budget. Community members can register to speak at the meeting through the City Hall website, by emailing [email protected] or by calling 214-670-3738. The deadline to register to speak at the Sept. 20 meeting is 5 p.m. Sept. 19.
