At the Texas Tribune Senate Candidate Forum back on June 8th, Tom Leppert said that he could be counted on to be a staunch budget cutter in the U.S. Senate, and for supporting evidence claimed that he had cut or eliminated several government programs as Mayor of Dallas.
Since I have been somewhat skeptical of Leppert’s conservative bona fides, this claim piqued my interest. So i wrote his campaign to see if they had a list of programs he had eliminated as Mayor.
It took a couple of reminders, but i was finally able to get a reply from Leppert’s Communications Director Shawn McCoy. Below is his reply verbatim, save for some WordPress list formatting and removing his phone number and email address:
Lawrence,
Sorry, it has taken a while to pull all of this together.
One of Tom’s greatest accomplishments as Mayor was working to make substantial cuts to the civilian budget in order to increase the size of the police force. He did this without raising taxes. In response, the crime rate dropped by double digits, with violent crime plummeting 30 percent.
Tom’s trimming of the civilian payroll led him to eliminate over 1400 positions. Pay was also reduced for the remaining civilian employees.
Tom’s consolidation or elimination of city departments took the city from 31 departments down to 23.
This included:
- Sustainable Development and Construction
- Development Services
- Building Inspection
- Housing & Community Services
- Housing
- Environmental & Health Services
- Management Services
- Public Information Office
- Intergovernmental Services
- Strategic Customer Services
- Efficiency Team
- Office of Emergency Management
- Fair Housing
- Office of Environmental Quality
- Trinity Watershed Management
- Trinity River Corridor Project
- Streets/River Levee Operations
- Public Works/Floodplain Management
Additionally, the zoo was privatized.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Best,
Shawn
Shawn McCoy
Communications Director
Tom Leppert for Senate
Thanks to Shawn McCoy and Tom Leppert for providing this information.
I am very far indeed from an expert on Dallas’ budget process, but I hope to take a look at the official budget numbers over the next few days to confirm the information above. My first impression from the FY2011 budget suggests that they may very well be credible, as official numbers show Dallas budget was cut by just 1.5% between FY2010 and FY2011, showing at least fiscal restraint here in the midst of the Great Obama Recession.
At some point I also hope to take a look at the mentioned Trinity Watershed Management, a subject that includes the controversial Trinity River Toll Road project, a complex subject on which I don’t feel I yet have a firm handle.
Tags: Dallas, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert