DALLAS, Texas — Dallas voters will find the same label on two very different questions when they reach the bottom of the ballot Tuesday. One Proposition A comes from the city and asks for bond money for public safety buildings. The other comes from Dallas County and asks for a higher property tax rate to pay for homelessness programs.
The city measure would let Dallas borrow $443 million. The biggest pieces are a $150 million crime lab and evidence storage building and a $149 million public safety training complex. The list also includes $82 million toward a police training center, $40 million to move 911 and emergency operations into a new building, and $22 million for a replacement of Fire Station No. 4 on Akard Street downtown. With interest, the city puts the total repayment at about $629.6 million over as many as 20 years. State law requires the ballot to call it a tax increase, though city officials say they do not plan to raise the property tax rate for it. Voters must take or leave the package as a whole.
The bond has split the City Council. District 4 Council member Maxie Johnson has stood with police and firefighter groups urging a yes vote, while District 12 Council member Cara Mendelsohn serves as treasurer of a committee campaigning against it. She wants a smaller bond next May aimed only at the police academy at UNT Dallas and a public safety complex in southwest Dallas.
The county measure would set a rate of about 24.9 cents per $100 of taxable value, up from the 22.5-cent voter-approval rate, and county officials expect it to bring in $102.9 million more for homelessness, encampment, mental health and housing work. For a home with a $300,000 county taxable value, the gap is $72 a year.
Neither measure would by itself meet the city charter rule voters adopted in 2024 that calls for at least 4,000 sworn police officers. Polling places open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
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