There has been an effort to petition for a tax rollback election. So let's consider this, if the petition signatures are validated, what happens next? I applaud civic activism but did anyone do the math associated with the rollback election?
This expenses of an election will be north of 20-25,000 dollars on a best case scenario. This will be the most expensive election in the history of Wilmer. Due to no cost sharing with any other county entity, the city will bore all the costs associated with this. What will be the benefits to the residents of Wilmer? A total of $16,292.65 exactly. Residents will see a minuscule 0.01426/100 dollars of valuation. In other words, a $50,000 home will save $5.43 Do you know Wilmer has the 5th lowest tax rate in Dallas County. Comparatively, Hutchins has a rate of 0.68/100 and Lancaster is 0.77/100 .
I have been a champion of lower taxes and fiscal spending but this tax rate was on my motion to adopt this tax rate for 2021-22. How quickly we forget about the 1.4 million dollar, unfunded, sewer line clean up into the Trinity last year. Even with the tax rate approved by council raising additional revenue mostly generated by new commercial construction, this additional revenue still was $500,000 short of covering the unfunded emergency . I always encourage participation but I discourage knee jerk reactions
