Park vs. apartments, tough times for Texas corporate payola: Your Monday morning roundup

 [Morning roundup]( 02/04/2019 By Todd Davis and Carla Solórzano Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌤️ Weather: Mostly sunny to partly cloudy and warm. High of 79. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [her]( Robert Dozier pitched the apartment plan he supports on Thursday night. (Robert Wilonsky) DALLAS [Dallas wants a park over Preston Center's garage, but the owners prefer apartments]( City columnist Robert Wilonsky writes: Late Thursday I spent two hours sitting in a meeting where the only thing on the agenda was a parking garage. #blessed. Ah, but see, this isn't any parking garage. This is the Preston Center Parking Garage, center of endless debates, plans and lawsuits over the last couple of decades. An 800-spot garage owned by Dallas City Hall but controlled by the surrounding property owners. A garage, cracked and cavernous, in dire need of repairs lest it come tumbling down in chunks. And, most important, a garage gobbling up three acres of valuable land whose do-over would dramatically reshape the area along the borders of Preston Hollow and University Park. That will be especially true if the poster-board dreamscape I saw Thursday night at the Walnut Hill Recreation Center becomes a reality. [Out of nowhere, this is what the landowners now say they want to build on top of the city's land]( 300 high-price apartments jutting out of the middle of Preston Center in a building perched on top of a five-story garage. And: Driver in fatal hit-and-run blames Mexican food for dizziness, [Dallas police say](. Commentary: Some black pastors have a new agenda for Dallas, but [will City Hall take note]( ADVERTISEMENT POLITICS [Property tax relief, but at what cost? North Texas leaders say police, fire, city services at risk]( The city of Dallas’ budget would have been $32 million smaller this year — if the governor’s new plan to cap local spending for cities, counties and special taxing districts had been in place. That’s a hole the size of the library system, which serves 29 locations, or the entire maintenance budget for parks, which serves 388 parks, playgrounds and fields. If the cap had been in place, Dallas wouldn’t have funded the $11,000 pay bump for starting police and fire-rescue workers it approved last year, which cost an extra $15 million, Mayor Mike Rawlings said. And the city wouldn’t be able to pay for the 100 new police recruits it’s seeking, with a price tag of $8.9 million. North Texas local leaders say the plan Gov. Greg Abbott and top lawmakers in Austin unveiled last week threatens these services and protections. It would impose a 2.5 percent cap on the property tax revenue local governments and school districts can collect from taxpayers. School districts would be made whole, lawmakers have said, because the state would give them more dollars. [But local government leaders say they’re being hung out to dry](. And: The Carrollton City Council is set to consider an ordinance Tuesday that would shield city employees, contractors and political appointees [from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity](. Also: [The crowded Dallas mayoral race is about to add another candidate]( Steve Smith, the founder and CEO of a $3.5 billion asset management firm and an active Dallas environmentalist. BUSINESS [Tough times for corporate payola? Firms give up state incentives and don't get a cent]( Business columnist Mitchell Schnurman writes: Texas has a reputation for doling out cash to attract new companies and investment, but corporate welfare isn’t what it used to be in the Lone Star State. Since 2016, the Texas Enterprise Fund — billed as the largest "deal-closing" fund in the country — has awarded just over $60 million to employers that expanded or moved here. Over the same time, the state returned almost $36 million to the fund through clawbacks and terminated contracts, according to a recent report to the 2019 Legislature. Clawbacks and terminations are two ways to settle accounts when recipients haven’t met their commitments, which usually means they haven’t hired enough people at high-enough salaries. Seven companies, including Sabre in Southlake, Thomson Reuters in Carrollton and Jamba Juice in Frisco, ended their deals before getting any money from the state. [What happened?]( And: Is it worth it? [How to determine the money you make driving your car]( for Uber, Lyft or deliveries. Also: [In President Trump's changes to H-1B visas]( some see a math problem that could hurt employers. EDITORS' PICKS - Commentary: 20 years later, justice for the lynching of James Byrd Jr. [might finally be complete](. - Fatalities: Two men and two children were found dead of [carbon monoxide poisoning]( Sunday morning in east Oak Cliff. - Sports: Here's five things the Dallas Cowboys must do [to get to next year's Super Bowl](. Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly, "an American treasure and historic sports figure," is set to be honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a Forever stamp. (Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation) FINALLY [Postal Service gives its stamp of approval to Dallas' 'Little Mo' tennis legend]( Business columnist Cheryl Hall writes: Anyone who knows Cindy Brinker Simmons knows just how hard it is for her to keep a secret. And the daughter of two late legends — tennis phenomenon Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly and restaurateur extraordinaire Norman Brinker — has been keeping a big one since 2015. That’s when she learned that the U.S. Postal Service was going to honor her mom with a commemorative "Little Mo" stamp. It took four years, mountains of legal documentation, hundreds of hours of conference calls, thousands of emails, unaccustomed patience and silence. But last week, her Energizer Bunny efforts finally paid off when [the postal service announced that it will honor Connolly Brinker as "an American treasure and historic sports figure"]( when it issues its "Little Mo" Forever stamp nationwide on April 23. 👋 That's all for this morning! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletters@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). STAY CONNECTED WITH US [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Tumblr]( [Google](dallasnews) [Reddit]( [OTHER FREE NEWSLETTERS]( [Unsubscribe]( | [Dallasnews.com]() | [Subscribe to The Dallas Morning News]() | [Subscriber login]() | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( You received this message because you signed up for this Dallas Morning News newsletter or it was forwarded to you. Copyright 2019 - [The Dallas Morning News, 1954 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75201, United States]()