The Dallas City Council passed a final budget that takes effect next month after a marathon session that went late into the early morning Thursday.
Although City Councilwoman Paula Blackmon lost in her effort to save a city library branch in her district, she does see plenty of positive opportunities from the budget and did vote in favor of it.
“We had a robust conversation on how we are going to use our brush trucks to look at code and basically take information, data, public information, and in a month we can scan all the streets, all the neighborhoods and see how our city is looking,” she said. “That’s pretty innovative and pretty cool.”
Mayor Eric Johnson joined two other City Councilmembers in voting against the budget. The main concern involved the city’s tax rate.
Johnson said he couldn’t support a budget that doesn’t, in his mind, deliver meaningful tax relief.
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn joined another council member and the mayor in voting against the budget.
“We have to make sure we are attracting businesses to stay in our city, come to our city, and making sure it is affordable for our residents,” Mendelsohn said.
Mendelsohn also wants better pay for Dallas police officers although she did see improvement.
“The manager actually did do a good job funding public safety more than it had been, but we’re still not where we need to be,” she said.
The City Manager’s office did promote the budget in hiring more officers and ensuring the soundness of the police and fire pension systems.