Mayor Johnson Gives State of the City Address. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson used his 46-minute State of the City speech to tout the city’s momentum coming out of the pandemic. He praised voters for passing a proposition to use hotel sales tax revenue to fund a new convention center and repair some Fair Park buildings. He called for more parks, particularly in neighborhoods like Oak Cliff and West Dallas, and again praised Police Chief Eddie Garcia for his work in reducing violent crime. (He also repeated his new favorite phrase, “Big Dallas Energy,” so it appears he’s officially trying to make that A Thing.) There wasn’t a lot new here, but there isn’t usually much new at these city charter-ordered speeches—unless the city’s pension is in crisis, which…
Dallas Police and Fire Pension Has $3 Billion in Unfunded Liabilities. It was just five years ago that the city was flirting with bankruptcy after a run on the police and fire pension helped expose that it was backed by bad real estate deals. On Tuesday, the current City Council was told that the solve from years ago was really just a stopgap. There’s a $3 billion shortfall and the clock is ticking: state law gives the city two years to fix it.
Home Prices Could Tumble by 20 Percent. That’s per the Dallas Fed, whose economist envisioned a “pessimistic” scenario where prices dropped by that much due to the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates 3.75 percent to tamp down inflation.
Grand Prairie Officer Dies Chasing Suspect. The driver fled in a silver Chevrolet Malibu that had fake paper tags. Officer Brandon Tsai gave chase and called for backup. Tsai’s car struck his colleague’s, which sent his patrol car into a pole. Tsai was pronounced dead at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.
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