City News Roundup

Marijuana marchers hit downtown Dallas and more city news nuggets

The second annual Marijuana March returned to downtown Dallas.

Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife

A marijuana march took place in downtown Dallas with surprisingly little toking up. An incident from April involving Dallas city council member Scott Griggs got resuscitated. And if it's your dream to bicycle with the city council, now's your chance. Here's what happened in the city of Dallas this week:

Griggs revival
Some City Hall documents and emails were made public this week regarding an encounter on April 13 between council member Scott Griggs and assistant city secretary Bilirae Johnson. This was the encounter wherein Griggs supposedly yelled "I will break your f---ing fingers!" at Johnson over a meeting agenda she was posting. Griggs was accused of coercion of a city employee, but cleared.

In revelation No. 1, Johnson spoke for the first time, saying that she'd balked at participating in the investigation, but talked to the police after learning others in her office had done so. Two other women in the office said they'd been yelled at as well.

But the bigger revelation was the unusually active role played by Dallas City Attorney Warren Ernst, who was a one-man band: reporting accusations, gathering statements, advising the police, picking up Dallas police chief David Brown's dry-cleaning. The Dallas Observer called his actions a "back corridor jihad."

Mounted heads
The Dallas Safari Club is one of a group suing Delta for the airline's ban on the shipping of game trophies, which they call "unconscionable." This is the group who sold the opportunity to shoot a black rhino in Namibia to Dallas hunter Corey Knowlton for $350,000, so if anyone knows about unconscionable acts, it has to be the Dallas Safari Club.

Their silly lawsuit claims that not-allowing hunters to bring back the heads of endangered animals to mount on their walls will harm their conservation efforts. Knowlton is also on the lawsuit, along with the Campfire Association and the Tanzania Hunting Operators Association.

Marijuana march
Marijuana advocate group Dallas-Fort Worth NORML held a second annual marijuana march through downtown Dallas on October 17, promoting a "more sensible marijuana policy" in Texas. The only legislation that has passed so far is Senate Bill 339, which went into effect September 1, allowing epilepsy patients access to low doses of cannabis oil. The march, which started at JFK Memorial Plaza, was not about smoking weed publicly, but encouraging legislators to change laws in Texas.

Unlike prior years, the event did not include booths or vendors. According to TXCann.com, an employee at the Parks and Recreation Department "dragged her feet for weeks" before sending the group to another department for the permit, which unearthed "all sorts of new requirements and fees" that made it burdensome. DFW NORML has a video up.

Bike with your CM
Dallas city council members are joining the annual "Bike to City Hall Day" on October 21, and you can ride with. Philip Kingston and Scott Griggs invite the public to join council members, city staff and bicycle enthusiasts on a ride through downtown Dallas. The event is being held to support Dallas' efforts to improve bicycling.

At 7:30 am, cyclists will gather at Main Street Garden, then depart for City Hall at 8 am. There'll be a press conference on the plaza at 8:30 am.

Participants include Kingston, Griggs, Adam Medrano, Erik Wilson, Mark Clayton, Adam McGough, Lee Kleinman, and Jennifer Gates, as well as members of various Dallas bicycle groups.

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Stretching the budget

A $100,000 salary in 2026 goes further in Dallas than it did last year

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A 2026 income study has good news for big earners in Dallas: A six-figure salary goes further than it did last year.

A Dallasite's $100,000 salary is worth $80,103 after taxes and adjusted for the local cost of living, according to the new financial analysis from SmartAsset. That's nearly 4 percent higher than last year, when the same salary had an adjusted value of $77,197.

Six-figure earners in Plano also got a slight — 2 percent — value boost to their salaries this year, the report revealed. A $100,000 salary in Plano is worth $72,653, compared to $71,372 last year.

SmartAsset used its paycheck calculator to apply federal, state and local taxes to an annual salary of $100,000 in 69 of the largest American cities. The figure was then adjusted for the local cost of living (which included average costs for housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and miscellaneous goods and services). Cities were then ranked based on where a six-figure salary is worth the least after applicable taxes and cost of living adjustments.

Plano ranked 27th and Dallas ranked 47th in the overall ranking of U.S. cities where $100,000 is worth the least.

If the rankings were flipped and the cities were ranked based on where $100,000 goes the furthest, that places Dallas in the No. 22 spot and Plano as No. 43 nationally.

Manhattan, New York remains the No. 1 city where a six-figure salary is worth the least. A Manhattan resident's take-home pay is only worth $29,420 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living, which is 3.10 percent lower than it was in 2025.

SmartAsset determined Manhattan has a 29.7 percent effective tax rate on six-figure salaries. Meanwhile, the effective tax rate on a $100,000 salary in Texas (based on the eight cities examined in the report) is 21.1 percent. It's worth highlighting that New York implements a statewide graduated-rate income tax from 4-10.90 percent, whereas Texas is one of only eight states that don't tax residents' income.

Oklahoma City, No. 69, is the U.S. city in the report where a $100,000 salary stretches the furthest. A six-figure salary is worth $91,868 in 2026, up from $89,989 last year.

This is the post-tax value of a $100,000 salary in other Texas cities, and their ranking in the report:

Austin (No. 53): $82,446
Lubbock (No. 59): $84,567
Houston (No. 60): $84,840
San Antonio (No. 62): $86,419
El Paso (No. 67): $90,276
Corpus Christi (No. 68): $91,110

According to the report, getting some "financial breathing room" by making six-figures really depends on where someone lives and what their lifestyle is. For residents living in the 42 states that levy some amount of income tax, their take-home pay dwindles further.

"And depending on how taxes are filed, reaching a $100,000 income may push a household from the 22 percent to 24 percent marginal tax bracket," the report's author wrote. "Meanwhile, locations with high costs across housing and everyday essentials may be less forgiving to a $100,000 income."

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