Sharon Boyd, Editor/Publisher |
DallasArena.com Your alternative to The Dallas Managed News Stan Aten
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06/19/09 CITY BUDGET
While reviewing the latest budget proposals for
the city of Dallas, I have concluded we would not have been in this mess if
there were more Mitch Rasansky's on the city council vs the average city
council member who is not that bright financially.
I will try and give a more detailed commentary
this weekend, but here are a few highlights to get your blood boiling:
#1 The mantra at city hall is not to raise
property taxes; however, the Dallas Water Dept. is having their property
taxes increased and their franchise fee raised. All those funds will be
given away to lure businesses to Dallas, but your water bill goes up. As
an individual homeowner or business, you can deduct property taxes from your
federal income tax, but you can't deduct your water bill even though part of
it is property taxes.
#2 All libraries in the city of Dallas
will be closed Sunday & Monday. Except for Arcadia Park and Hampton
Illinois, branch libraries will have their hours cut in half from 46 to 23
hours to maybe 4 hours a day, Tuesday thru Saturday. At the same time,
homeless outreach at $5.3 million would be fully funded. I would rather the
city cut homeless outreach vs branch libraries, since the homeless do not
contribute anything to our city in the way of revenue.
Reviewing this preliminary budget proposals, it
seems there are lots of budget cuts and not much in new forms of revenue.
If Mitch were cloned, I don't think the city would have gotten into such a
mess. With 8 Mitch Rasansky's on the city council, the city budget would
have been kept from going so far out of balance.
I would have spoken up sooner, but I got an
award at city hall for my work with libraries this week. I thought I
should refrain from saying what I think until after I got the award.
Basically, if this budget passes all my work in past 14 years will be nullified because the average citizen will no longer have access to one of the most basic city services, a public library. Stan Aten |
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