City of Dallas: Budget FY 2011

"Its the most wonderful time of the year..." Nope, not Christmas. Budget time. Ugh. City Manager Mary Suhm released her proposed budget this week and its not pretty. The budget deficit is less than last year, but still tough, tough, tough. City revenues are down, and its hard to run a city of 1.3-ish million people with less cash than expected.

This year's budget includes cuts across the board compared to last year's budget...which was itself cut from the budget two years ago. So, the City is now forced to operate on a budget that has been scaled back two years in a row. The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011 is $70M less than our budget in FY2008. $70M less. Wow. Its not like we've gotten any smaller around here. The City has continued to grow these past two years. All of this makes for a difficult situation down on Young Street.

This year's proposed budget includes continued layoffs at City Hall, as well as cuts in all departments, including Police and Fire (these two escaped last year's cuts). The reason why Dallas is having a hard time? Drops in property value tax revenues and sales tax revenues. Dallas is not alone in having to tighten its belt, as most major cities face similar (or worse) circumstances.
The graphic above lists the major areas of expenditure for the City. Unfortunately, debt service takes quite a chunk out of the City's pocket change each year.

City Council members will be conducting neighborhood meetings for input from citizens on the proposed budget. Council members will (theoretically) take this input back with them to City Hall as they hash out the final numbers. SouthOf635 hopes to attend Angela Hunt's community meeting on Thursday and intends to tweet live updates as the meeting progresses. Look for interesting tidbits on the budget on Thursday evening on Twitter! Until then, remember to keep shopping in Dallas, we need that sales tax revenue. Every penny counts...