Texas Budget Source

It’s the ninth most populous county in the United States and with initial 2010 budget projections at $30.2 million less than last year, county residents are now asking how did this happen and what can be done to fix it?

Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield says the county knew more than a year ago there would be a budget deficit.

The general fund expenditures saw a decrease of $30.2 million from 2009 to 2010 but it wasn’t enough to fill close the gap.

“Some of the budget strategy that people for that had didn’t come to fruition so some of our shortfall is from last budget year,” said Mayfield, adding, that “we put some proposals in place and raised some revenue. We didn’t hit the projections on some new revenue sources or increased revenue sources, and some reductions didn’t turn out.”

County Budget Officer Ryan Brown says some of the expenses that attributed to that staggering number are simply unavoidable. One example is county salaries, the biggest expense for the county. Employees have not seen a pay increase in three years and will likely not see another pay increase this next fiscal year.

Another big county expense is its jails. Brown says the county spends $14 million a year just on utilities to secure and care for 7,000 inmates in the county jail. But it’s not just housing the inmates. Taxpayers also spend $7 million to feed inmates along with $17 million on court-appointed attorneys to represent some of them.

“It gets difficult to cut back, to stop providing certain services. Some are labeled at mandated like taking care of inmates and their meals,” said Brown.

Some non-mandated expenses include $2 million for postage for the county, $2 million for office supplies, and $1 million on printing expenses.

According to the Dallas County check register, just under $100,000 a month was spent to AT&T for telephone service. A $63,000 check was made out to CCS Consulting, but Brown did not know what that was exactly for.

Proof the expenses are piling up: since 2000, the county’s spending has nearly doubled while population in the area has only grown a little over 10 percent. When asked why, Commissioner Mayfield said he was unaware of those numbers.

Mayfield says besides county expenses, the main cause of the budget deficit is a 9 percent drop in the valuation of commercial properties. He says there has been very little new construction to add to the tax rolls in the last few years, mostly due to the state of the economy.

“Like the house market, which has gone south, the values for commercial properties has also deteriorated. With the economic pressure of people being unemployed and not being able to spend, it’s finally hit the property values of businesses,” said Mayfield.

For example, a Dallas County business was appraised at $1 million last year; Mayfield says that number could be as low $500,000 this year. Therefore, he says the tax rate applied is going to raise less money, revenue he says the county desperately needs.

While the road ahead will be difficult, the county does have some solutions. Along with a county-wide hiring freeze, all departments have been asked to cut their budgets by 10 percent, this on top of a 10 percent cut last year as well.

“It’s kind of early in the process to know just what departments will offer to cut. That hasn’t been seen yet. We do have to consider everything- the potential of law suits, whether or not employees get raises,” says Peggy Lundy, chief of staff for County Judge Jim Foster.

The property rate has stayed unchanged at 22.81 cents per $100 valuation for the last three years and Mayfield expects it to stay that way. He doesn’t believe raising property taxes will solve the answer although it is still unclear if that will happen. He did say, however, if his colleagues vote to raise property taxes that could free up some money to give county employees raises.

“We haven’t raised the tax rate in the last two budget shortfalls. It’s not the wise thing to do with people because we don’t want a tax increase to put a burden on everybody,” said Mayfield, adding, “Benefits for employees has remained the same and pay hasn’t dropped. I think we should continue riding this out. I don’t think we should burden everyday Americans on property taxes when those everyday Americans already pay enough in taxes.”