Dallas Mayor May Change Mind On Property Tax Rates Because Of Potholes
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DALLAS (CBS11) - Ask residents and drivers what they think of the roads in Dallas, they don't hesitate. Gene Wells says, "They're terrible, they're terrible."
Shannon Pierce says, "The streets, they need some major attention."
And Chelsea says, "Roads are really bad."
The streets in Dallas are bad enough, Chelsea says, that she recently had to replace one of her front tires. "There were all these potholes and I'm driving 45 to 50, next thing you know one of my tires just busted. I was pretty upset about it because it's money down the drain."
The same thing happened to Shannon Pierce. "Out of nowhere comes a pothole and just about knocked everything out of my trailer, and blows out the tire."
A new survey of 1,500 Dallas residents shows fixing the streets is the number one priority.
Blame the icy winter, and rainy spring -- for highlighting the need. "We have a ways to go to have great streets."
Mayor Mike Rawlings has previously said he wanted to lower the city's property tax rate to make up for rising property values.
But with all the potholes, the mayor may change his mind. He says he would keep the property tax rate as is instead of lowering it -- only if the city can use a portion of the money and quickly make a big dent in road repairs.
If not, he'd stick to lowering property tax rates.
Mayor Rawlings says, "I'm kind of with streets right now. I'm leaning toward it. But I want to make sure it's going to make a significant difference. If it doesn't I'm probably going to be with the taxes."
Most residents surveyed say they wouldn't mind paying more fees -- as long as they paid for street repairs.
But most say they wouldn't want to see property tax rates go up to pay for this.
Shannon Pierce says, "Shouldn't be out of our pockets, we didn't make it. They didn't make it, but they're responsible for it."
Gene Wells says, "I don't think they should raise the taxes, there's got to be another way."
A city spokeswoman says starting next month, the city will fix potholes, a process that could take four months.
From October, 2014 through this past June, the city says it repaired 32,454 potholes.
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