/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/UJSMNE7GWU4L5NG4ALMOJW765M.jpg?ssl=1 "Dallas taxpayers to pay for City Hall’s past sins")
This chicken was bound to come home to roost.
You can’t blame either Dallas’ current city management or this City Council for the $55 million-plus bill that has come due because of a poor decision made years ago.
But the consequences are theirs to deal with.
We are talking about the cost of settling a lawsuit with Trinity East Energy that stems from a bad choice in the late aughts to cover a massive gap in the city budget with what, at the time, seemed like windfall money from frackers.
The decision made some sense at the time. The bubble had burst on the housing market and Texas cities, reliant on property tax revenue, were scrambling to cover lost revenue.
In Dallas, the budget gap was $90 million. Pink slips were flying at 1500 Marilla, and cherished city programs and services were on the block.
But then City Hall took checks valued at some $33 million from Trinity East Energy and a second company. It went a long way toward managing the lost funds.
The problem was that not long after the checks were cashed, serious concerns about the environmental impact of fracking were growing. Strange earthquakes were shaking Irving, where fracking stretched from DFW International Airport to Loop 12. And there was the question of groundwater contamination, among other concerns.
In 2013, council members, listening to residents, balked on approving zoning permits that were necessary to drill. But the money was long ago spent.
Mayor Mike Rawlings at the time promised the city would be sued and would lose. He was right.
It’s taken some 10 years, with interest piling up, and Dallas is all but certain to borrow to pay off the suit. What a shame when there are so many other needs.
The milk is spilled, and there is no choice but to clean it up.
But let this be a lesson to future governments. Don’t cut deals you might not be able to keep. And never believe in the fallacy of easy money.
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