Like a lot of cities, Arlington faces a shortfall to its operating budget for the next fiscal year. Unlike some cities [cough, Dallas], Arlington has a well of royalties from natural gas drilling to tap.
The city, according to Manager Jim Holgersson, can save 49 jobs — 29 among the police force — by creating a $6.8 million one-time fund from the royalties and a $1 million surplus from the workers' compensation fund to close the $10.3 million gap in the budget, caused by falling property valuations to the tune of about $1 billion and flat sale tax collections.
There’s more to it all than that, so read the complete details from the Star-Telegram. It just gives me a headache.
Bottom line, though, 29 police officers along with an assortment of administrative assistants, analysts, a city attorney, and the city's environmental education coordinator get to keep their jobs, at least for another year.
If property and sales tax revenue don’t rebound for the following fiscal year, though, uh oh, 29 officers along with an assortment of administrative assistants, analysts, a city attorney, and the city's environmental education coordinator probably need to update the résumés.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He created his own job after being laid off because he’s not really qualified to do much of anything else.
