The mayor said he’ll lead by example and proposed cutting funding for the city’s lobbyists in Austin and closing a library.

DALLAS — Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson challenged city council members to reduce the city’s budget and use the savings to lower property taxes — but he doesn’t want them to cut infrastructure or public safety funding, which makes up the vast majority city’s proposed $5.2 billion budget. 

Johnson said he’ll propose cutting the city’s lobbyists in Austin and closing a library that council members indicated they wanted to save during budget discussions last week. 

In a memo to council members Friday, Johnson said the cuts he’s proposing will save $725,612 — which, if approved, would equal a modest reduction in property taxes by less than a tenth of a penny per $100 valuation. 

“While a 0.032¢ reduction may appear minor on its own, if each member proposes similar amendments — eliminating wasteful spending without affecting essential services like public safety and infrastructure maintenance — then we as a City Council can build off of the City Manager’s proposed 0.5¢ reduction and provide meaningful tax relief to our residents,” Johnson wrote. 

It was not clear whether council members would follow the mayor’s example, although freshman member Bill Roth previously suggested sweeping cuts that included closing the city’s police oversight and ethics offices and ending its funding dedicated to reducing traffic fatalities. 

Johnson had voiced frustration with the lobbyists that Dallas pays to advocate on the city’s behalf in Austin at a late-August council meeting. He argued the same lobbyists had been in place for decades and no longer had access to power players at the Capitol. 

“The City’s state lobbying team is simply not delivering results commensurate with its cost,” he wrote in his memo.  

Johnson is also proposing cutting funding that would have kept the Skillman-Southwestern Library open. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert proposed closing the library location for a second year in a row this budget cycle, but Council members indicated support to reallocate funds to keep it open three days a week. 

“Reimagining our city budget for greater efficiency is not an insurmountable task, and I trust each of you is up to this challenge,” Johnson wrote in his memo. 

The city council is set to discuss and vote on the final budget Wednesday.