Mayor Eric Johnson’s Plans to Defund Dallas Bloated Bureaucracy

Defund Dallas may be the new cry against Defund DPD. Mayor Eric Johnson has recently stirred up controversy for trying to cut government salaries. It all started on September 1st when the mayor posted a tweet highlighting the discrepancy of salaries of Dallas among other government salaries.

Apparently the Dallas City Manager, T.C Broadnax, makes more than the President of the United States. Which is certainly odd, considering the wide gap in responsibility between the two jobs. As well as the fact that even the top 10% of City Managers earn significantly less than what T.C Broadnax is currently earning (according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019)

Should this be the case? Is the wage worth the work? Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t think so. In fact, the mayor himself wrote an opinion piece on The Dallas Morning News defending his budget amendment.

In it he states his proposal to decrease the salary of some Dallas government officials amidst the pandemic to make room for more services and lower taxes.

Mayor Eric Johnson’s Defund Dallas Program

The budget amendment in a nutshell cuts 10% off the salary of anyone who makes more than $60,000 annually (including the mayor himself who makes $80,000). This does not include anyone working for emergency services.

Cuts made from the salaries are to help fund more services such as better infrastructure (better roads and streetlights), better policing/ public safety, and lower property taxes.

Unfortunately there is no specifics as to what he means by better policing. Nor if the lower property taxes will be a main focus point or simply an extra treat in case there is left over funds. More details will be unveiled once he formally proposes the budget amendment on the 23rd.

Public Perception

When the straw vote was conducted not a single council member voted on even discussing a cut to salaries. Some people agreed with the mayor and where disappointed by the council. Some said the mayor should have also proposed to cut salaries from the Dallas police, and other cuts in general. Others made fun of the mayor for leaving after the straw vote. And a handful questioned the validity of his bloated bureaucracy claim.

As is with government in general, ineffectiveness and useless spending often persevere. Seeing as how the Dallas council has voted in the past its unlikely that the budget amendment will go through despite the COVID-19 struggle and mayor Eric Johnson’s attempts.

“If this is not the time … to trim the top 10% of salaries at the city of Dallas … then there will never be a time,” -Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson