First things first: Put the city employees back in their jobs

The Dallas Morning News' pair of intrepid city hall reporters,  Rudy Bush and Steve Thompson, co-authored a story that appeared on-line today which all but said flat-out the Dallas City Council will pass a property tax increase to balance the fiscal 2010-11 budget.

The two, indirectly attributing the thought to council member Angela Hunt, wrote "it's clear from town hall meetings that many people are willing to support a rate increase if the money is used for tangible services such as streets, parks and libraries."

All well and good; however, the first thing the money should be used for is re-instating the 450 city employees laid off under the budget proposed by City Manager Mary Suhm.

As any economist will tell you, a healthy economy is dependent on jobs. The more people employed, the more people there are who can spend money. The more money that changes hands, the healthier the economy. It's not rocket surgery. If Da Mayor and the rest of the council are serious about giving some kind of boost to the local economy, restoring those 450 employees to their jobs would be a step in the right direction.

Of course, restoring many of those employees will also mean the city will be able to keep rec centers and libraries open longer because they will have the people needed to staff these facilities during the extended hours. But I heard one member of a library advisory commission, one of the many boards and commissions who are appointed by city council members, stand up at council member Sheffie Kadane's town hall meeting and say the first thing the library should do with additional money is to purchase more materials.

Bullfeather. Purchasing books and magazines from some far-flung local publisher is not going to contribute dilly to Dallas' economy. Putting laid-off librarians back on the payroll will, however. If need be, have private corporations, solicited by all those folks wearing "friends of the library" buttons at various town hall meetings, pony up the funds for the materials. But putting people back to work will have a far more long-reaching and positive effect on the local economy.