Dallas City Manager's Memo Shines Light on a Money Leak Worth Billions

Hey, got kind of side-tracked by my hobby yesterday, hope you don’t mind. I’ll get back in the saddle tomorrow. Kind of frittered away the day on my pastime – trying to guess exactly how screwed up City Hall is.

I mean, we know it’s screwed up. Sure. But how much? Can you even guess? This is what I do for fun. It requires somewhat less athletic ability than golf. I guess.

Yesterday I started with the good news. According to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, the city’s tax base increased by almost $14 billion last year, a boost of more than 11 percent.

And, listen, that wasn’t just the work of little scrubbing-bubble guys from the appraisal district going around town with their legal pads and their pop-bottle spectacles chalking up the values of everybody’s already existing property. Over $2.5 billion or 18 percent of the total increase came from new construction.

Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-gives-billions-back-to-special-tif-districts-while-streets-rot-9431551