Municipalities are among the institutional and commercial organizations that have faced the toughest challenges battling deferred maintenance. Generations of local officials and taxpayers nationwide have declined to invest enough money to properly maintain and repair city facilities, leaving maintenance departments scrambling to stretch the minimal funds they do receive to care for aging facilities. Consider the case of the city of Dallas, which is wrestling with answers to its deferred maintenance problems.
Dallas is spending only one-half of the amount of money it needs to keep its buildings from deteriorating, according to The Dallas Morning News. City staff briefed the Dallas City Council recently about the status of its facilities and recommended finding the money for upkeep beyond using proceeds from asset sales.
In the proposed 2025-2026 budget, the city allocates around $14 million for maintenance and repairs. But John Johnson, director of facilities and real estate management, said Dallas is not meeting the recommended 2-4 percent annual investment of total facility replacement value. Based on the industry standard, city maintenance requires approximately $15 million more annually, he says.
Dallas manages more than 500 buildings totaling almost 10 million square feet. The approximate value of these buildings is $1.5 billion, and the average structure was built 47 years ago.
Solutions to the problem will not come easily. A city council member asked how the city would pay for the increased maintenance without a tax increase. The city’s chief financial officer said there is no dedicated funding source for maintenance beyond proceeds from asset sales.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
