DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - The Dallas City Council unanimously approved a budget for the next fiscal year. The new budget focuses largely on keeping and hiring new Dallas police officers. Police and fire budgets alone total about 58% of the general fund. Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, thanked council members for the additional public safety funding. "When you increased that starting salary, we saw a 40% increase in the number of applicants to be officers from two years prior," Mata says. The council also decreased the city's property tax rate for the fourth year in a row. It falls from 77.67 cents per $100 of valuation to 77.66 cents. The total budget for the next fiscal year is $4.04 billion. City Manager T.C. Broadnax initially pushed a tax hike, which he says would have brought in another $4.5 million. The new budget begins Oct. 1.
