All cities at one point or another started out as a patch of land out in the middle of nowhere, land owned by an array of individuals and businesses. As time goes by, some of those land owners develop their own land, pass on that land to family members, or sell their land to developers for profit. That land that is sold to developers soon becomes the home of residential development (houses, apartments, condos, townhomes, etc) or commercial development (industrial, manufacturing, retail, etc). As a city grows with development, the governmental body must grow with it. In order to provide the services to that growing city (police, fire, public works, code enforcement, etc) taxes must be collected. Taxes collected by any given municipality include property taxes, sales tax, hotel occupancy tax, etc.
As the town develops, the individual interests of residents and business owners increase. Businesses and residents alike begin to setup how the town is governed with ordinances, codes, it’s government structure, etc. Residents begin to desire different amenities such as parks, events, retail options, and restaurant options. The increase in interests requires steady and increased tax revenues and perhaps more growth. Citizen needs such as public safety, infrastructure maintenance, city infrastructure, parks, events, etc are all funded by two major tax streams, property tax and sales tax.
Cities are managed very much like a business. The one exception you can make between cities and most businesses is that cities have a limit on their growth. Once they reach their ceiling, they very much depend on the economic viability of the businesses and residents within it’s boundaries. It’s the property and sales taxes which the residents and businesses within those boundaries provide that determines the level of services the city can provide. While there are a few ways cities can potentially control it’s economic viability now and in the future, there are occurrences that threaten their well-being that are out of their control.
What can cities do to help solidify it’s sustainability? Diverse economic growth and conservative budgets will go a long way in securing the sustainability of a city. Cities around DFW, Texas, and the country are facing furloughs, layoffs, and suspension of services because of the current pandemic and it’s resulting economic downturn. Economic recessions, an event that is predictable, generally happen every ten years or so and cities still face the same issues when they occur. Bringing “essential” commercial growth to your city such as manufacturing, industrial, data centers, grocery stores, gas stations, liquor/beer/wine stores, and mixing that with retail, car dealerships, restaurants, etc allows for cities to bear the brunt of downturns like we are seeing today.
What about when the downturn comes? What then? During hard times the focus of city leadership turns to what can be done to make sure we get through this either unscathed or with as little injuries as possible. While businesses face the issues of dwindling profits, potential losses, layoffs, closures, and bankruptcy, city leaders face similar. However, in many ways it’s different. We see our staff often, in some cases everyday. We live in the same city as most of our staff. We eat in the same restaurants, go to the same grocery store, worship at the same church, our kids go to the same schools, and in some cases we are close with them and/or their family members. In some cases we’ve known them for many years or all of our lives. All of them work for the city not only to support it’s citizens and the city they live in, but to support their families, just like you and I. City leaders have the responsibility of looking it’s staff and the citizens they represent in the eyes everyday and making decisions that minimize the effects of uncertainty. In this way it’s very different than a business. We are very much a family. What does a family do when it faces difficulty? It comes together and does everything it can to protect itself.
So what do you do when that time comes, during a downturn, and you need to protect yourself? What then? You do everything you can to support the economic base you have built, that’s what. City leaders owe it to the businesses, their owners, city staff, and it’s citizens to support the businesses that make up its tax base in any way it can so that business closures, job losses, and the suspension of services are all kept to a minimum with a goal of all of those numbers being zero. You hope for the success of all cities and it’s businesses, especially those immediately surrounding. However, you must support your own.
Municipal sustainability is not an easy task. It’s a process that generally spans decades, hundreds of city leaders, thousands and thousands of decisions, and generations of people. While I remain cautious about the economic numbers through April, May, and beyond I have reason to believe past and present Forney has done a great job setting itself up to weather these storms.