Ahead of a briefing in which Dallas City Council members commended city officials for going “above and beyond” in finding, somehow, somewhere, wiggle room in Dallas’ budget, the horseshoe was assured that financial strife is not exclusively a Dallas problem. After addressing a $51 million deficit in the next fiscal year’s budget, Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert warned that the economic strain is not going to be this year’s problem: it’s a new normal. But “this issue is not specific to Dallas,” said Dallas Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland on Tuesday. In the draft of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget that Dallas officials were briefed on Tuesday, city employees would no longer have access to a copay healthcare plan. Guaranteed public safety investments are also a consideration in Dallas’ budget.