When I heard John Cappello on the stump during his run for mayor last time around, two things stood out in: 1) The guy sure makes a lot of sense, and therefore, 2) He has no chance whatsoever.
And so it was that Cappello was crushed in the multi-man mayoral race, only to show up as a member of the city commission on which I sit — the Commission on Innovation and Productivity. Jim Schutze wrote about this commission a couple of years ago when we looked into whether the frequency used by WRR-FM and owned by the city should be traded to a private station owner; even though there was lots of money in that deal for the city and not too much downside, that idea went down in political flames before ever reaching the council.
Yesterday, though, the Observer noted that a tiny item at the end of our monthly agenda indicated that we were considering something identified as a "property tax holiday". On the face of it, that sounds pretty good. And as the meeting neared an end a few minutes after 6 p.m., Cappello briefly discussed his idea: Homeowners in target downtrodden Dallas neighborhoods should be entitled to a small property-tax break if they, say, add a bathroom or make some other major improvement to their house; in that case, the additional home value created by the improvement wouldn’t be taxed for a period of time, as a sort of reward to the homeowner for investing in his or her house and neighborhood. Not all of the target neighborhoods would be in South or West Dallas, Cappello says, indicating there are target areas in all parts of the city that could use some attention and some money.
The idea sounds a little radical at first; you know, one of those ideas city councilmen would like to say they voted for but then might have to explain how they blew the city budget paying for. But here’s my thought: What’s the difference between giving a few bucks back to city homeowners willing to take a risk on their neighborhood vs. giving a few million bucks back to commercial developers willing to take a risk on a neighborhood in town?
There are basically no details to the possible "property tax holiday" idea Cappello advanced; instead, a subcommittee was selected to look into the idea, and everyone on the commission will probably get a chance to hear the idea in a few months, at which time we might endorse the idea and send it moving along toward the council, or we might decide it just doesn’t work here in Dallas.
We’ll just have to see what Cappello and his subcommittee find out about how similar programs have worked in other cities (Cappello says Fort Worth and Richardson have programs designed to accomplish the same purpose) and how it might work here.
