September 5th, 2009 by Reed Allmand 
According to an article in the Star-Telegram, America’s foreclosure crisis is hitting cities hard, forcing them to cut back on services and implement job losses. Unfortunately, Dallas-Fort Worth is amongst the foreclosure casualties.
The article said:
“…NLC research director Christopher Hoene warned that cities including Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago have explored cuts to public safety as a way to cope with future budget shortfalls.
“The worst of the recession’s impact for cities still isn’t here yet. We’ll be feeling it in 2010 and 2011,” Hoene said. “That means service cuts and quality-of-life changes that define who you are as a city.”
“A steep drop in property tax revenues has had a major impact on cities, about 95 percent of which collect and rely on property tax revenue to fund services. About half have a local sales tax and 10 percent have a local income tax.”
We predicted that this would happen back in February, see the article here: http://www.allmandlaw.com/bankruptcy_blog/tax_debt_garnishments/sagging-tax-revenues-shake-up-dallas-fort-worth/.
When a city experiences the amount of foreclosures we have in Dallas-Fort Worth, the side effect is a massive decline in property tax revenue and ultimately a shrinking pool of money for necessary services such as “public safety.” Our legislators have failed to understand the link between foreclosures and the possible decline of our city. When foreclosures hit individuals and families we all ultimately lose. While our legislators fail to clamp down on mortgage lenders who are the root cause of this foreclosure crisis, we are at risk of losing even more revenue needed to support the ecosystem of this city. Allowing homeowners to modify their mortgages in bankruptcy would have gone a long way in reducing the number of foreclosures in Dallas-Fort Worth and in turn saved the city from losing additional property tax revenue.
Source: Star-Telegram
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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