Mesquite, Texas – In a legislative decision rendered on Monday, August 21, the Mesquite City Council expressed unanimous consent for the adoption of the City’s fiscal blueprint for the 2023-24 financial year. Meanwhile, other cities in North Texas like Dallas are still discussing their budgets.
Mesquite’s 2023-24 budget to improve public safety and to secure growth
Punctuated by judicious allocations geared toward augmenting both public safety and communal wellness, the budget delineates provisions for new personnel in the police force, the inception of a new fire station, operational staffing and requisite apparatus for the aforementioned fire facility, as well as the establishment of a novel Behavioral Health Division.
“This budget is about the future of Mesquite,” said Mayor Daniel Alemán, according to a press release. “We are a growing community and an aging community. We need staffing to address the growth and funding for repairs to aging infrastructure. A new fire station and the staffing needed to operate it will ensure that residents in our new housing developments will have the same response times that residents in established parts of the community count on every day.”
Situated in the Trinity Pointe vicinity of Mesquite, which falls within the administrative bounds of Kaufman County, Fire Station No. 8 will serve a rapidly expanding area. Already in the pipeline are plans for more than 4,000 homes, in conjunction with retail and commercial developments which are currently in the nascent stages. Although the fire station’s formal inauguration is slated for 2025, the present budgetary allocations necessitate the preliminary hiring of requisite personnel within the current fiscal cycle.
Facilitating a multi-dimensional approach to community welfare, the newly instituted Behavioral Health Division will function as the supervisory body for the City’s Community Care Team, a program currently sustained by grant funds from Dallas County. A specialized coordinator role is also inculcated within the division, earmarked to orchestrate initiatives aimed at mitigating homelessness within the Mesquite enclave.
More police officers and fire-fighting staff
To encapsulate, the major thrusts of the 2024 budget are enumerated as follows: an increment of four additional police officers; a surge in fire-fighting staff with 14 new positions for Station No. 8; the installation of the Behavioral Health Division, endowed with enhanced services for homeless individuals; an injection of $1,237,000 in fresh capital earmarked for comprehensive roadway and alley refurbishment; and a recalibrated remuneration structure to ensure competitive compensation across all echelons of public safety and governmental vocations.
Lastly, it is incumbent upon the electorate to sanction the projected hike in the tax rate—which sees an escalation of $0.03186 per $100 of ad valorem value—owing to its surpassing the legally stipulated tax cap of 3.5%. The public referendum on this matter is scheduled for November 7, 2023, in accordance with state legislative mandates.
More information about the budget and city finances can be found at www.cityofmesquite.com/Budget.
