Just remember, Evan: when you’re ready to come back, we’ll still be here.

UPDATE: That number is too high. E&P has issued a correction.

I agree with the mayor. But I also agree with Hunt. And that means, paradoxically, that I disagree with both of them. To invest in Dallas we need to raise taxes to pay for it. Otherwise we will be running Dallas like a junior version of the Bush Administration. 

The rebuttal, of course, is that a recession is a stupid time to raise taxes.  Almost all economists would agree — for the national economy. But Dallas is only 3/10th of 1 percent of the national economy. Its effect on the economy is like a pebble thrown into Lake Texoma.  There is never a stupid time to be fiscally responsible.  Tom Leppert the businessman knew that; Tom Leppert the politician-with-stars-in-his-eyes seems to have forgotten it. If we want the debt, the city should raise property taxes to pay the interest and principal. Otherwise, the citizens are handing the potential Senate candidate a IDCIWBH* card.

*I Don’t Care, I Won’t Be Here

2. Virgin America, the low-cost airline, is considering opening routes to Dallas and Austin. You may begin your “I’m flying Virgin” jokes in three, two, …

3. Frisco will fight its school district rating of “recognized,” because it thinks it deserves “exemplary.” This is because they deserve it. Even if they didn’t quite make it. Because it’s not fair. I mean, it’s Frisco.

2. The Dallas Zoo could get new ownership, as the City Council seems open to a plan to have it run by the Dallas Zoological Society. Dallas would still have to contribute annual lump-sum payments—which sound suspiciously to me like elephant loans.

3. And, high-end condo sales in Dallas are still suffering. This news brought to you by the years 2008 to 2011.

Comparative tax havens like Florida, Nevada, and Arizona didn’t see an influx of millionaires in 2008. Far from it. In 2008, Las Vegas lost 38 percent of its HNWIs [high net worth individuals], and Phoenix lost 34 percent. Florida, which has no state income tax and hasn’t been talking about one, was a killing field for the rich. The three major metro areas that lost more than 40 percent of millionaires in 2008 were all in no-income-tax Florida—Orlando (42 percent), Miami (42 percent), and Tampa (51 percent). The decline has nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with bursting asset bubbles.

As Glenn Hunter noted on July 15, Dallas hasn’t been hit as hard but we are still down 1.4%.

“I can only offer my opinion, which is that Ross Perot Jr. must be desperate from the losses he has suffered from Victory and his hedge funds. My lawyers have been open with our minority partners, and in Mr. Perot’s case, very minority, about the loans to the Mavericks. The loans have been used to put the best possible Mavericks team on the court, which in turn created the NBA’s longest sellout streak and drove business to the AAC/COC and to Perot’s Victory development. As best I could tell, he was very happy to take advantage of the traffic when he had an economic interest in Victory to do so. Unfortunately for Mr. Perot, he was apparently unable to capitalize on the benefit and is trying to find nickels in the sofa cushion. It is my understanding that Mr. Perot has received legal notice of the loans since they began, right after the Mavs appearance in the Finals as we tried to improve the team further. Only he knows why he has chosen to file a lawsuit and to make it public. The unfortunate reality is that this is the nature of our business relationship with Mr. Perot. From all I can tell, he could care less if the Mavs ever win a game. I have to tell you that the biggest mistake I made in buying the Mavs was in not completely buying out his interest.”

(H/T: Fish)