On Friday, we learned that the city is facing a budget shortfall, something to the tune of $34 million. Not great news that has kicked off further debate about whether the city is actually broke or if it’s “broke” so the case is stronger for tearing down City Hall, if this is economic headwinds, or if it’s a case of mismanagement. And while $34 million seems small compared to the city’s $5.2 billion budget for the year, the things that are contributing to the shortfall—a ballooning police budget that will only continue to grow because of a voter-approved charter mandate, increased health insurance costs, and a slowdown in sales tax revenue—will still be issues the Council will need to deal with as it begins budgeting for next year.
And where was the Mayor? Madrid. He was in Madrid. And before that, he was ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq. Now, the press release announcing his participation in Bloomberg CityLab takes pains to point out that the trip was paid for by Bloomberg Philanthropies. This is likely because Tolbert’s announcement last week also put the kibosh on travel, and it wouldn’t be a great look for the Mayor of Somewhere Else to be Somewhere Else on the city’s dime. But Tolbert’s announcement has no comment from Mayor Eric Johnson, and he hasn’t commented anywhere else, either. And this isn’t that unusual, as you can see below.
It’s true that Dallas has a council-manager system (or weak mayor), which means he is essentially an at-large council member with some additional duties. But if ever there was a time to speak up–even if it’s from Madrid–isn’t a somewhat dicey budget situation one of them? Not even a “If we’re going to be part of the solution, maybe we need to chip in?”…