City News Roundup

Dallas can see centuries-old comet in the sky and more city news

Dallas, keep an eye out over the next few weeks for C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

Courtesy photo

This roundup of news around Dallas includes the exciting return of a Dallas website and the possibly more exciting return of a centuries-old comet. A top City Hall official is retiring and there's a homeless count coming up.

Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

DCAD's back!
The website for the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD), which appraises property taxes in Dallas County, is back after a months-long outage following a ransomware attack on November 8 that disrupted DCAD's computer system, servers, email, and website. DCAD launched an interim website but nothing beats the original, and it's here just in time for the January 31 deadline for 2022 property taxes.

Comet is in town
A bright green comet is sweeping through the sky with visibility across DFW over the next month. Called C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet was discovered in March 2022, and according to NASA, is now visible in the Earth’s northern hemisphere, where it will reach its closest distance to Earth on February 1. It'll possibly be visible to the naked eye, although binoculars or a telescope are obviously optimal, and the best time is early mornings before the sun rises. Livescience.com has good tips for viewing, Space.com has photos, and theskylive.com has live up-to-the-minute updates. Halley’s Comet, the most famous comet, takes about 76 years. This one takes 50,000 years, and it really deserves a catchier name (although astrology buff Bob "AstroBob" King is calling it "Comet ZTF").

Homeless count
Housing Forward, an agency that works with the homeless, is seeking volunteers to help count Dallas' homeless population on January 26. The count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for communities that receive funds. According to the Dallas Observer, this event usually takes place on a single morning or night in January, when cold weather is likely to drive more of the homeless into shelters, making them easier to find and count.

The 2022 count found 4,410 homeless people, compared to 4,570 in 2021. Other stats: 83.2 percent are 24 or older, and Black people are the majority at 54.2 percent (even though they're only 24 percent of the general population). More than half or 65.3 percent are male.

Dallas City Attorney retires
Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso is retiring, according to an email obtained by D Magazine, in which Caso said, “I will be retiring from the City on February 28 to spend more time with my family and to pursue other interests." Caso became interim city attorney in 2018 and was officially appointed to the position in 2020. During that time, he was involved in controversial cases including an effort to close poker rooms and an ordinance that banned sexually oriented businesses from operating from 2-6 am. The retirement announcement comes one week before he was due for an evaluation.

politics city-news-roundup

income analysis

This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

The cost of raising a child has ballooned in major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, forcing many families to weight the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas, that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support their stay-at-home partner and their child, the report found. If both parents worked in the household, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in North Texas, however, is slightly more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $22,337 to raise a child in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report's author says families will look for ways to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family