Dallas County is currently in the thick of their budgeting process for the 2019-20 fiscal year, and recently an assortment of County-funded organizations made their requests to the Board of Supervisors.

The first group to talk at the meeting was the Dallas County Library Association. Brianna Glenn, the President of the Association and Director of the DeSoto Public Library, went over the statistics from 2018, which included more than 345,000 visitors to the 12 libraries in the County. Perry Library Director Mary Murphy and Adel Assistant Library Director Trevor Jayne also offered their input on the Library Association’s funding, which was requested to be unchanged from last year.

One group that did request an increase was the Dallas County Fair Board. Board President Sean Hick and Treasurer Ty Luellen asked for an additional $10,000 for the year. They said it would go towards providing higher quality evening entertainment for the fair in July. After that, Pete Malmberg, the Chairperson of Discover Dallas County Tourism and Curator of Forest Park Museum, discussed the positives of advocating for tourism in the County before requesting the same amount the group received last year. Homecare Services also requested identical funds from what they received in 2018, which was $220,000, to help them provide care for their 325 current clients.

Finally, Clyde Evans and Christine Gordon with the Dallas County Housing Trust Fund Authority requested $9,937, which represents $1 per person living in the unincorporated parts of the County. Gordon emphasized that the funding would be earmarked for projects in rural Dallas County. The funding requests were for discussion only at the time, but each will be considered as the budget is crafted in the coming weeks.