Many voters in Dallas will find two ballot questions with the same label on Tuesday. City of Dallas Proposition A asks whether the city may borrow $443 million for police, fire and emergency facilities. Dallas County Proposition A asks whether voters accept a higher county property tax rate meant to pay for homelessness programs.
They come from different governments, and the result of one has no bearing on the other.
Which ones appear depends on where a voter lives. The county question is part of the Dallas County election. The city question goes to city of Dallas voters in all three counties the city reaches into, Dallas, Collin and Denton, according to the city's election ordinance.
A Dallas resident living in the Collin or Denton County part of the city will see the bond but not the county tax question.
City Proposition A: a $443 million public safety bond
The City Council called the election in Ordinance 33494, adopted Aug. 12. Voters are asked to authorize $443 million of general obligation bonds for public safety buildings, along with a tax to repay them. The city estimates repayment of $629,618,180 in principal and interest over no more than 20 years. It is the only city bond question on this ballot.
The city's bond materials list five planned projects:
- $82 million toward the police department's Law Enforcement Training Center at UNT Dallas. The project costs $227 million in all, and $145 million from city, state and private sources has already been identified; the city says ground was broken Sept. 3.
- $149 million for a proposed Public Safety Training Complex covering more than 60 acres at Dallas Executive Airport, for advanced field training. Design has not begun.
- $40 million to move the city's 911 call center and Emergency Operations Center into a renovated building the city already owns. A site is still being chosen.
- $150 million for a single facility combining police evidence storage, a lot for vehicles held as evidence, and the crime lab. Staff are still studying a site, and the city says the cost would be $232 million at an alternate location.
- $22 million to replace Fire Station No. 4, which opened in 1953, at a new site yet to be found.
As state law requires for bond questions, the ballot reads "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE." The city says it does not expect its tax rate to go up because of this bond.
Council Member Maxie Johnson, who has campaigned for the bond alongside police and firefighter association members, says the money is needed to finish the police academy and replace aging facilities. "It's simple, vote yes," he told NBC 5.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, treasurer of a political action committee working to defeat the bond, wants voters to turn it down and take up a smaller package in May aimed at the police training sites. She objects to moving the 911 center out of City Hall.
"This is the first step in abandoning City Hall," she told Fox 4, which reported that her motion to narrow the ballot language failed 8-7.
County Proposition A: a tax rate tied to homelessness
On Aug. 11, the Dallas County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 to adopt a 2026 rate of $0.248650 for each $100 of taxable value. That is 2.4 cents above the $0.224650 voter-approval rate, the cap set under state law, so the Texas Tax Code requires an election. The county's rate last year was $0.215500.
The county's election order says the extra revenue would fund efforts that "measurably reduce homelessness" and clear encampments, help homeless residents become self-sufficient, widen access to mental health care, and back programs that provide stable housing. If most voters reject it, the county rate drops to the voter-approval rate.
The county's order estimates a home with a $350,000 average value would pay $116.03 more a year on the county portion of its bill. A city of Dallas staff memo dated Aug. 28, citing information from the county, put the added cost from the proposition at $64.32 a year for a $350,000 home.
