Garland’s Biggest Challenge, Part 1

And what does L.O.V.E. have to do, have to do with it?

At last week’s Work Session, City Manager Jud Rex presented next year’s proposed operating budget. Approving the nearly $1 billion in operating fund spending each year is by far one of the most important tasks we as a council do.

Rex also mentioned “Garland’s Challenge,” which he said was a term coined by his predecessor and former City Manager Bryan Bradford. Bradford recognized that Garland is below the Metroplex average in both per capita sales tax revenue and per capita property tax revenue. This puts the City in a tough position as we don’t have the same per capita amount of funds available as surrounding cities. Garland’s saving grace is that thankfully we have other sources of revenue including the Hinton Landfill and Garland Power & Light, but those are always one Texas State Legislative Session from being regulated away from City control.

Of our General Fund resources, we receive 9.7% or $22.1 million in revenue from our landfill and waste disposal operations and $23.1 million or 10.2% from our GP&L return on investment. Without these two entities, there is no way we could provide the same number of amenities and level of service, including public safety, to our citizens.

Last year (2022), Garland’s sales tax revenue was $41.5 million. City Manager Rex stated that this is significantly less on a per capita comparison to other Metroplex cities and is proven by the data in the chart below. Rex said that if we were at the average per capita rate, we would have an additional $70 million in the budget per year to provide more police and fire fighters, more street repairs, more parks and trails, more, more, more…

(Notice any outliers in this data? 2021 was the last year data was available, but the situation hasn’t improved much since.)

So what can we do about it? I want to address the supply-side of the tax revenue equation by changing the laws to allow for more retail stores, and therefore more sales tax revenue, in to our coffers.

How do we do that? One of two ways:

1. Have our state legislators in Austin pass bracket legislation to allow alcohol sales similar to the one very narrowly written for the City of Rockport, Texas several years ago.

   [Sidebar - We had a bill written just for Garland this past legislative session which failed on the House floor. More on that in a subsequent post.]

2. Use a citizen-led process to call a local option election.

With the first option not being viable, I am leading a group of citizens in calling for a local option election to allow for packaged liquor sales at retail establishments in Garland. Currently only beer and wine sales are allowed in Garland, but not hard liquors such as whiskey, tequila, or rum.

A local option election is a means to change the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code to allow for packaged liquor sales. To have an election, the petitioners must obtain the number of signatures equal to 35% of the number of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election. Since the last gubernatorial election was off-cycle from the presidential election — which typically means lower voter turnout — we feel now gives us the best chance to get the signatures required — approximately 20,000.

In 2005, two propositions passed to allow for the sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption only (similar to what we wish to do for liquor), and the sale of mixed beverages in restaurants (like that margarita goes great with those Desperados Tacos).

(Results of the 2005 Local Option Election approved overwhelmingly by the voters. Source: Dallas Morning News, Page 18A, May 8, 2005)

I believe allowing retailers to sell packaged liquor will increase the retail sales per capita totals, and thus the sales tax revenue. In our estimate, Garland loses thousands of tax revenue dollars yearly to surrounding municipalities each year simply because we don’t allow liquor sales. Let’s keep our sales tax dollars local.

Also, it isn’t like liquor is not already here just because we don’t sell it within our city limits. I can easily run across to Dallas, Plano or Richardson and buy my favorite whiskey. 

(My favorite rye whiskey — Herman Marshall — formerly distilled in Garland, but moved to Wylie 2021. A great way to cap off a long day. I’ll take mine neat.)

Furthermore, large retailers like Costco prefer to be in locations that allow liquor sales. Just look at what the side of the Costco building in Plano says as seen from the Central Expressway. 

Google Street View of the Costco in Plano on the Central Expressway

By allowing these retailers into our City, we will keep our liquor spending here in Garland local and will bring in some spending from outside the city. This will help us change the calculus regarding “Garland’s Challenge” and will allow us more funds to provide new and improved roads, parks and popular programs such as the Neighborhood Vitality home improvement programs.

So what does L.O.V.E. got to do with it? 

We are calling our initiative Garland Local Option Voter Engagement or Garland L.O.V.E.

So how can you help? 

Go to GarlandLOVE.com and sign up. We are gathering people who are willing to sign the petition and, more importantly, be a signature gatherer to help collect the number of signatures required. We need 20,000+ signatures, and by State law, we only have 60 days to gather them. Once we get the required signatures, it will still go to a city-wide election, like it did in 2005, for final approval. I’ll write more about the specific process in a future post. 

We are hoping to go live with our petition during the September-October period to coincide with the opening date of the Downtown Square (lots of available signatures), Garland Guzzler (lots of friendly alcohol aficionados), National Night Out, and thankfully cooler weather to walk the blocks.

Show Garland some L.O.V.E. now at GarlandLOVE.com.