HOW TO SPEND $1.2 BILLION

City Manager Mary Suhm dropped by last week to get grilled on the Dallas bond issue, by far the largest in the city’s history. Her proposed outlays are here. There’s nothing sexy about this one; it’s all meat and potatoes–streets, flood control, parks–except for small amounts for the Cotton Bowl and the Woodall Rodgers park. It’s the process that intrigued us, how she has aligned the spending with the City Council’s stated goals, which prevents it from becoming a free-for-all of pork barrel special interest spending. The lady is quite impressive and very obviously astute.