I can hear them whining now. City leaders across North Texas crying the blues. All of them insisting their city faces a budget shortfall. My guess is, most of those leaders ran on a promise of “NO NEW TAXES!” But now taxes are on the rise. Here is a partial list of cities considering a tax hike:
- Dallas
- Corinth
- Grand Prairie
- Forney
- Lake Dallas
- Pilot Point
- Garland
- Benbrook
- Royce City
- Crandall (proposed 37 percent tax hike)
- Little Elm
- Corsicana
One city stands tall and stands alone. The posh Dallas suburb on the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard has not raised taxes in 17 years. The last time Heath raised taxes I was a junior in college, 1990! The big question, how do city leaders do it? The funniest part is the philosophy is so simple. Here are just a few quotes from Mayor John Ratcliffe:
- “It’s simple, we live with in our means.”
- “If Revenues are X than expenditures should not exceed X.”
- “We don’t take on debt, we don’t live on credit, we don’t borrow.”
- “We never dip into reserves, instead we cut our costs.”
Sounds like the way I try to run my household. What a novel idea for a city!
