Taxes

Dallas Real Estate Baron Gene Phillips Hasn't Paid Taxes on His $25 Million Estate Since 2005

Gene Phillips isn't the type of homeowner the Texas Legislature had in mind when it passed a law in 1979 allowing senior citizens to indefinitely defer their property taxes. Think instead of an ailing grandmother, whose Social Security check wouldn't stretch quite far enough to cover groceries and p ... More >>

Tony Romo is the NFL's Highest-Paid Player After Taxes, Grover Norquist's New Poster Child for Tax Reform

With the mammoth six-year, $108 million deal he signed last week, Tony Romo became the most richly rewarded player in Cowboys history. That put him fifth on the list of current NFL players, ahead of Eli Manning and Tom Brady but well behind Ravens QB Joe Flacco's $20.1 million per year. Those numbe ... More >>

A Republican State Senator is Pushing For an Increase in the Texas' Gas Tax

Texas' 20-cent-per-gallon gas tax hasn't changed since 1991. That's despite the erosion of the tax's purchasing power -- the Wall Street Journal estimates that the gas tax buys half as much concrete, steel, and other materials as they did 20 years ago -- and a glaring need -- the state comptroller's ... More >>

The 10 Most Corrupt Tax Loopholes

If Mitt Romney won't tell you which need to be closed, we will

City to Pay State $400,000 For Not Taxing Golf Course Green Fees

If you've played a round of golf at one of Dallas' half dozen municipal golf courses, you may have skipped out on the state-mandated 8.25 percent sales tax on your green fee. The city contracts with independent golf pros who collect green fees but haven't traditionally collected sales tax. It's a lo ... More >>

Your Property Taxes Are Probably Going Up. So Is Community College Tuition.

Dallas, both city and county, has held the line on property taxes in recent years despite dwindling revenues and shrinking budgets. Still, your property tax bill is probably going to increase after September 1, when Dallas County Community College District's new budget goes into effect. DCCCD spoke ... More >>

Class Wafare? Fine, Let's Get This Party Started.

The Republican presidential candidates all agree on one thing -- the same mantra between all their lines. They all want us to believe that the extreme polarity of rich and poor in this country is an expression of natural law. The super-rich just have to get super-richer. Everybody else, sadly, must ... More >>

Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle

Rick Perry's Texas is a job-making, low-taxing oasis of prosperity. It's also pure fantasy.

Wherein Ron Natinsky Tries to Explain Why He Didn't Try Harder to Stop Last Year's Tax Hike

Photo by Sam MertenRon Natinsky​Last week, we revisited the Trinity River toll road and convention center hotel referendums with mayoral candidate Ron Natinsky because, well, there just wasn't enough space to explain it all in last week's cover story. Much like we quickly glossed over those is ... More >>

We Need a Mayor Who'll Cut Up City Hall's Credit Card.

Two District 14 City Council Candidates Promise Not to Raise Taxes But Don't Have Concrete Solutions to Pending Budget Shortfall

James Nowlin​Late last week, we took a look at three of the five potential candidates for Angela Hunt's District 14 city council seat -- Jim Rogers, Vernon Franko and Brian Oley -- one of which (Rogers) said Hunt's decision to run for a fourth and final term caused him to put his campaign on h ... More >>

City Hall's Debate Over the Tax Hike Was About More Than Curtailing City Services.

If You Don't Want to Raise Taxes, Better Look At The Kind of City You Do Want.

Doing the Math After Today's Tax Rate Vote

City of Dallas Facebook pageFrom yesterday's Pavaho Pump Station groundbreaking, though feel free to write your own caption​Didn't even get my print-edition column out the door this week before I got a major correction, and this one from a person who would know -- city council member Angela Hunt. ... More >>

The Biggest Tax from City Council is On Our Patience.

Leppert: Tax Hike Is "A Very Risky Gamble"

​Mayor Tom Leppert has said it time and again: No tax hike. No way, no how. But in case you missed it the first 29 times, his e-vite to tomorrow morning's council budget briefing serves as yet another just-say-no note in which he takes aim at Angela Hunt and the other seven council members support ... More >>

This Just In: Eight Council Members Tell Mary Suhm They Want a 4.91-Cent Tax Hike

Do not expect a repeat of this scene any time soon, at least when it comes to the FY2010-11 budget.​Moments ago I received from council member Angela Hunt's office a memo that follows, in which Hunt and seven of her colleagues (Delia Jasso, Vonciel Hill, Steve Salazar, Carolyn Davis, Pauline Medra ... More >>

City Manager Mary Suhm: Call for Tax Hike "Pretty Universal" at Budget Town Halls

Sam MertenMary Suhm​"Do a tax rate increase." That's how City Manager Mary Suhm sums up the feedback from Thursday night's budget meeting at Edna Rowe Elementary. "That's pretty universal when we're at town hall meetings," she says. Despite the overwhelming number of residents pleading for ... More >>

Leppert on Tax Hike: "I Don't Want it Coming on the Shoulders of the People Who Live Here."

Sam Merten​While I had Mayor Tom Leppert on the phone Monday evening, to discuss the walkout by six council members before the tax-rate hike briefing even got going, we talked for a few minuts about his opposition to a property tax hike. He acknowledged: Yes, some council members are leaning that ... More >>

The More Things Change: Yesterday's Council Walkout Brings Back Fond (?) Memories

​Fine print alert! When Mayor Tom Leppert tells you that yesterday's agenda item vote on the city tax rate didn't mean anything, he's got his hand deep in your pocket. It may be fine print, but ask Leppert why the vote was required by state law if it didn't mean anything. Yesterday's council walko ... More >>

The Mayor Doesn't Want a Tax Hike. Some Council Members Do. A Few Citizens Too. You?

​I've been trying to tell you: Word from inside City Hall is that a tax hike of at least one cent "actually might happen." The reason: That's what The People are demanding at these budget town halls, if only to keep the rec centers open and the parks mowed. And a one-cent hike, in addition to the ... More >>

Despite draconian budget cuts, DART continues to put on a happy face.

Four Months After Hubbie Pleaded Guilty to Tax Evasion, Realtor Eleanor Sheets Joins In

Eleanor Mowery Sheets and husband Nicky​Again, this is Candy Evans's beat -- why, just today she noted over on D's DallasDirt that the former manse of Eleanor and Nicky Sheets is selling at half off the original asking price after it failed to move at an IRS auction in February. Nevertheless, this ... More >>

DART Sends Word: Sales Tax Drop Will Cause "Indefinite" Delays of Three Significant Projects

​We've known since March that Dallas Area Rapid Transit's $3-billion drop in sales tax receipts would put on hold several key projects, chief among them the second downtown rail line, or D2. But exactly what and for how long? Those are answers we didn't know, not until this evening. DART spokesman ... More >>

The City's Budget Shortfall is $131.1 Million, So Far. Forthcoming: Service Cuts, City Hall Layoffs and Fee Increases. And, a Tax Hike?

​Maybe you heard -- the city's facing a $131.1-million budget shortfall, not as bad as last year's $190 mil but, still, bad enough to merit deep cuts once more. And while several council members, among them Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, have said a tax hike may be necessary to keep from gutting ci ... More >>

Two Months After Taking Guilty Plea, Terri Hodge Sentenced to Year in Prison

Sam MertenTerri Hodge​The staff was all tied up today and couldn't make it to the Earle Cabell for Terri Hodge's sentencing. But the guilty-plea-taking ex-state represenative got a year in federal prison, because U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn didn't really buy her story that, look, it was ... More >>

The Feds' Local Tax Busts Best-Of: The Chart-Topping Hits From 2009

​There's magic in these hits hot off the charts, all charged with original star power -- pure power! New, from K-Tel and the U.S. Attorney's Office, this hit parade of local tax preparers, investment advisers and other no-filing nogoodniks currently serving five to Top 10! The original hits of '09 ... More >>

Hodge Admits to Receiving More Than $30,000 From Potashniks, Using Campaign Contributions For "Personal Benefit"

Hodge landed herself quite a deal.​The indictment against Terri Hodge has always looked much more damning than the evidence facing the rest of the gang involved in the City Hall corruption case, and it turns out that, well, it's all true. Hodge admitted as much in her factual résumé, which s ... More >>

Even Stephen Hawking Couldn't Figure Out the Fuzzy Math Behind How We Are Going To Pay For the Trinity River Park.

Haunted House, or: The Dead Occasionally Qualify for Property Tax Exemptions

Flickr photo: numberstumper​Here's the latest report from Craig Kinton's office: Audit Report on Inappropriate Tax Exemptions and Delinquent Property Taxes, which the mayor and the Dallas City Council were given on Friday. But the short version: The City Auditor's Office went through the Dallas Ce ... More >>

Several Council Members Say That, You Know, a Teensy-Tiny Tax Hike Ain't a Bad Idea

​Speaking of the council and the budget and fees versus taxes ...As we mentioned yesterday, Tennell Atkins's budget amendment called for a 1-cent property tax increase -- which I didn't think would get terribly far, given council members, the mayor and the city manager's oft-repeated vows not to r ... More >>

National League of Cities: If You Think Dallas's '09-'10 Budget Looks Bad, Wait Till Next Year

Sam MertenCity Manager Mary Suhm debuting her 2009-'10 budget to the media three weeks ago​On August 10, when the Dallas City Council met to discuss City Manager Mary Suhm's budget proposal that gut services and employees to make room for a $190-million budget shortfall, the city's chief financial ... More >>

Out of the Pool: City Council to Get a Detailed Look at Cuts to Park and Rec's Budget

Click to expand City Manager Mary Suhm's list of proposed pool closings in the coming fiscal year​For those Friends of Unfair Park who haven't read through the entire FY2009-2010 proposed city of Dallas budget, the city council's biting off tiny pieces during regularly scheduled briefings in advan ... More >>

I Had a Fake I.D. Once. Bought Beer With It. These Folks? A Little Busier With Theirs.

Sixty-six-year-old Levander Carlton McLean and his wife Rita Murphy McLean, who's 21 years his junior, are gonna be spending a little time apart -- five years or so, give or take, thanks to U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, who yesterday sentenced the Garland couple to federal prison for using fake d ... More >>

No, Really, Will This Get Me Audited?

I hope Dallas' Lennon Madzima did not prepare your income tax returns. Because the feds allege today that Madzima falsified some 1,100 returns since tax year 2004, with the amounts in question somewhere in excess of one ... million ...dollars. Like this, from the Justice Department this afternoon: A ... More >>

Angela Hunt on DCAD's New Downtown Appraisals: Finally, a Level Playing Field

Angela Hunt Yesterday, Sam Merten broke the news that the Dallas Central Appraisal District has drastically increased the value of the land the city's eying for the new convention center hotel, from $7.3 million to $36.5 million. (And, really, Dallas Morning News, you're so welcome. Any time.) Short ... More >>

Judge 'Droid

Wake him up and he votes

Hotels Not Taxing Dallas

Dallas hotel property taxes are up. Waaaay up. Just sayin'. Interesting story in today's USA Today about the rise in hotel property taxes across the country--and how Dallas is way above the national average. That's what PKF Consulting, an Atlanta-based company that keeps tabs on the hospitality biz, ... More >>

TIF for Tat, Part II

TIF for Tat

A Friend of Unfair Park with a extensive working knowledge of tax increment financing districts--or TIFs--sends this missive to set straight all those who think folks like Ross Perot Jr. and Tom Hicks and, well, just about every wealthy developer in town are getting free rides for turning sinkholes ... More >>

A Taxing Sports Equation

Really, by the time you get to the end of this, you'll feel much better about the Dallas Mavericks' loss last night. Really. If nothing else, you will be so confused you'll forget there even was a basketball game last night. But try. I is not very good at the maths, so I can't say for sure whether t ... More >>

Sweetheart Deal

How does Virginia McGuire make a profit in the nonprofit business of creating affordable housing? Simple. She pays her husband.

Road Rage

Homeowners in a Denton County neighborhood wage battle against "taxation without representation"

Wolf? What wolf?

A humongous lawsuit knocks on the door at City Hall, and we're gonna end up paying--one way or the other

Bad break

An arena foe sets her sights on what she claims are unlawful tax exemptions

Busted

Even in these boom times, Dallas is broke, thanks to a city council that has been giving away the store

Nothing ventured

The end of the 1999 legislative session proves that, for Gov. Bush at least, it's better to look good than to do good

Bush's free ride

With a little help from his Democratic pals, George W. Bush has become the GOP front-runner for president. But it's a cold world beyond Texas' borders, and it may take more than charm and luck to carry a good ol' boy to the White House.

The new Civil War

Tax breaks for corporations are about to tear us in half