1. The Dallas City Council is really feeling the pain of the $190 million budget deficit. The mayor asked Councilman Jerry Allen to figure out how to cut $500,000 from Council costs. Allen’s plan: lay off staff secretaries and have two council members share one secretary. But Councilwoman Angela Hunt thinks that’s a bad idea. On her blog early this morning, she laid out a plan to hit the $500,000 goal by essentially just cutting back on photocopies and free meals for council members. Message to Hunt: stop trying so hard. You’re making the rest of them look bad.
2. Samuel Dewayne Delmast taught us all an important lesson. If, when you are arrested, you have meth on you and you happen to drop it on the jailhouse floor, don’t drop to your knees and lick it up.
3. While Dallas got some good news on the homefront (prices actually went up 1.9 percent from April to May), Collin County is learning that the days of double-digit growth are over. After a decade of steady growth, property values have gone flat. Plano, in fact, saw its tax roll dip for the first time since 1991. As officials there look to balance their budgets, may I suggest that they have a hard look at their photocopying expenses?
