A Brief Chat With Dallas' CFO About The Budget (and the Looming Recession)

Above, that's Elizabeth Reich, the chief financial officer at Dallas City Hall. Came here after 16 years at Social Security Administration. Probably, the second-most important person in the building, after the city manager. Easily, one of the smartest. In the midst of doing far more important work, she took a few minutes to visit Monday about things in the FY2019-2020 budget that aren't getting much attention. She also noted a few things that aren't in the budget -- most notably, a ton of new full-time employees. She says this is because Dallas City Hall is keeping an eye out for a looming recession. Seems like we should start there. "The truth is, we've really tried to be careful about adding new positions," she said. "Because we don't know when a recession will come. ... We want to be mindful of adding staff if we see a potential in decline. And we see one coming, in sales tax and property tax growth. So we want to be mindful of that." That said ...   Continue reading...