Mayoral Candidate Phil Dyer Answers Questions & My Analysis of Property Tax by Income Level

Phil Dyer (email: phil@phildyer.org & website: http://www.phildyer.org/) will get my vote for Plano Mayor, his answers to my questions are inserted below, and I appreciate his clear answers. Additionally, Phil is a tireless public servant to Plano that should be very helpful in facilitating Plano's Economic Development, understands the importance to Plano of all its diverse population, and will be an excellent representative of Plano.

Please consider Phil's answers inserted below and vote for him. A good opportunity to visit with Phil and other Plano Candidates is Thursday, April 9 – 7:15 pm Plano Homeowners Council (http://phcplanotx.com/) at Reflections on Spring Creek. Early voting begins April 27nd, so please vote early to avoid any hitches in making your vote count.

After an analysis using Census Bureau / Texas Tax / Other Online Sources, it appears that households making less than $35k per year pay school property taxes as a pass through via rents (not including other costs or that rents are not tax deductible) of about 3% of their incomes; whereas, households over $35k per year, who are normally home owners, pay school property taxes of about 1.6% of their incomes which are tax deductible but still increase other costs and depress home values. Anyone that would like to dig through this property tax analysis is welcome to email me for further details. God willing, I will complete a similar analysis of sales taxes by next Saturday. Please let me know your thoughts.

David Lee Hall

dhall.texas@gmail.com


Mayoral Candidate Phil Dyer Answers to Questions

1. Will you vote to post the check register online including date, number, payee, amount, and option to view the check stub (list of line items being paid by the check)? YES.

2. Do you favor replacing some of our property taxes with sales taxes (City) and PISD do you favor replacing some of property taxes with a statewide sales tax to be allocated based on the number of students? -- i.e. if elected will you personally lobby Austin to help make those changes? I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN REPLACING THE CURRENT INCOME TAX SYSTEM WITH A SALES (CONSUMPTION) TAX. I HAVE NOT LOOKED AT THE DETAILS OF REPLACING AD VALOREM TAXES WITH A SALES TAX, BUT WOULD BE OPEN TO DISCUSS THE CONCEPT.

3. Do you think that it is acceptable to continue running a deficit? THE CITY CANNOT LEGALLY RUN A DEFICIT, SO THAT IS NOT AN ISSUE. I AM AGAINST DEFICITS (OTHER THAN A TRUE EMERGENCY) AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT.

4. Assuming NO to 3 above then are you in favor of increasing taxes, cutting costs, and then which of each. CUTTING COSTS IS OBVIOUSLY PREFERABLE TO RAISING TAXES, BUT INCREASING TAXES NEEDS TO BE PART OF A FULL, HONEST DISCUSSION.

5. Are you in favor of more, less, or the same amount of outsourcing? I AM IN FAVOR OF LOOKING AT OUTSOURCING ANYTHING THAT MAKES SENSE ECONOMICALLY AND DELIVERS THE SERVICE WE EXPECT.

6. Assuming you are in favor of outsourcing then what are good options?
City - Engineering, Planning, Inspections, Legal, Security, Parks, Recreation Centers, Pest Control, Information Systems, Others? YES, I WOULD BE OPEN TO THOSE FUNCTIONS AND ANY OTHERS THAT MAKE SENSE.
School - Management of Selected Campuses, Varsity Athletics, Facilities, Planning, Transportation, Information Systems, Others?

7. Are you in favor of curfews during certain hours of the day and/or night for unaccompanied minors? I WOULD CERTAINLY BE OPEN TO THAT DISCUSSION.