BOND ELECTION: WILL VOTERS SAY THIRD TIME’S A CHARM?

The positive people at city hall are using words like “balanced” and “people-oriented” to describe the $428 million bond package to be handed to the Dallas voters on November 5. They remain confident that the great majority, if not all, of the 11 propositions will pass by a comfortable margin.

For the most part, nothing has happened to shake their confidence. Perhaps the only controversial portion of the package is a $1.2 million request to build a group of athletic fields next to the Trinity River. Because council members feared the Trinity River improvements package could jeopardize any other issues in the bond election, they made it a separate proposition.

Better than half of the proposed bond improvements call for much-needed street and transportation improvements. Other propositions will address needs for improvements in the areas of police and fire facilities, Arts District land preservation, solid waste disposal facilities, Dallas Zoo and library facilities and flood protection and storm drainage. If the entire package gets the nod from the voters, property taxes will rise approximately $3.69 per $100 assessed valuation, a 7.5-percent increase from 1986 to 1990.

This is the largest financial request the city has ever made and the third time this year that Dallas voters have been called to the polls by political subdivisions with their hands out. But this is also the year that a strong showing by underdog mayoral candidate Max Goldblatt documented growing disenchantment with the present leadership.