Dallas leaders agree on cutting costs. The harder question is how deep they’ll go

Some Dallas City Council members expressed cautious support for Mayor Eric Johnson’s budget ideas, but questions remain about whether his recommendations can close Dallas’ $51 million budget gap.

It’s not the first time Johnson has suggested cutting City Hall spending. Over the past seven years, the mayor has wanted to lower the tax rate and cut the city government’s staff but has rarely swung council consensus in his direction. 

But things may be different this year. 

Johnson released a detailed roadmap last week, including suggestions to let coffee shops operate out of libraries and save money on maintenance, hiking fees at city facilities for outside visitors and insurance by pooling vehicles among departments. 

He reiterated he wanted to protect public safety funding while lowering the tax rate. 

His proposal now sets the stage for difficult choices awaiting the council. Budget discussions begin Aug. 11, and while few disagree with the mayor’s emphasis on a leaner budget and lower taxes, some said the city’s long-term financial health may require making cuts past councils have often backed away from. 

“I’m not against” the mayor’s budget, council member Paula Blackmon said. “I don’t see how his suggestions equal $50 million worth of cuts because to me you’re going to have to go at overtime, people’s employment.” 

Council member Kathy Stewart supports the mayor’s focus on fiscal responsibility and said the city needs to be “good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

“As we face these hard budget decisions, we need to continue our commitment to core services like public safety, parks, libraries and infrastructure,” Stewart said. 

Council member Gay Donnell Willis said the city can use this opportunity to improve its approach to public-private partnerships and growing philanthropic efforts across departments such as arts and culture, parks and other public services. 

“Cuts aren’t the only way,” she said. 

For instance, the city set up a relatively new data analytics department in 2020. Willis said the department has proven to be important, adding that when the department began working with the Dallas Police Department to combat trafficking, the department increased enforcement and finding missing youth.

Johnson has often found himself at odds with his coworkers. He had a tumultuous relationship with T.C. Broadnax, suggesting the former city manager and top city executives take a pay cut during the pandemic. 

But Johnson didn’t find many takers on the council. Instead, the City Council cut $7 million from police overtime. They restored the funding the next year. 

In 2023, he banded with council member Cara Mendelsohn to lower the property tax rate and warned that the city’s budget was bloated. 

But the council stuck with Broadnax’s recommended rate,saying deeper cuts could affect the city’s finances. The city relies mainly on property and sales tax collections to pay for services. 

Blackmon said the mayor’s new budget recommendations hold merit but ideas like opening coffee shops in libraries could not be addressed by the general fund. The council may just have to adopt more aggressive cuts. 

“You’re going to have to go at the big dollars, not the little ones,” she said. 

Willis said she agreed that programs such as the WIC program and lactation centers could belong with county health services, but the program has 18 months left on it and she wondered if it was strategic to let the program sunset before cutting it completely. 

The question that now remains is where the council will land as a group. 

Last year, Johnson issued a challenge to council members: cut nonessential spending and reduce the tax rate. But the council instead reversed cuts to organizations such as the zoo and the arboretum. 

Johnson voted against the $5.2 billion budget, but he did get some wins. Council accepted his recommendation of eliminating city funding for state lobbyists.