Liveblogging the Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting
Categories: City Hall
 |
| Maybe, at some point, we should tell Andrea that council committee meetings are streamed online. |
First up is a presentation on air quality monitoring contracts with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from Errick Thompson, Assistant Director of Public Works and Transportation here in Dallas. We get federal and state money to run our clean-air monitoring program, but the program still needs city dollars. Which is fairly important in a city that "has an ozone issue," per Thompson -- which is to say, a city officially in non-compliance with the Clean Air Act.
Despite the fact, as Linda Koop just said, "there's no price on clean air," the city is pretty intent on paying as little as possible for it: "I really think we can get down to zero," said Koop. That means looking into, in Thompson's words, "additional opportunities to generate more revenue," a.k.a. more ways they can jack up prices on permits, fees and whatnots for entities like used car lots that are required to pay the city to operate. This year, the city contributed $102,527 to the air quality monitoring program, versus a projected $71,527 next year with increased fees. Clean air gets cheaper and cheaper every year, it seems. I'll take three.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
![Police Say an Asian Massage Parlor and Far North Dallas House are Part of a Massive Prostitution Ring [Updated]](http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/common/assets/707009.75x75.jpg)
