“Knee replacement at Baylor got me moving again.”

“You have no idea how many steps you take until every one is painful,” says Jill Gunnels. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage in both her knees was virtually gone, and she needed total knee replacement. “I wanted to make sure the right person did the procedure,” she says. At Baylor, Jill had bilateral knee replacement, a highly technical orthopaedic procedure. Now, she says, “My life has changed. I’m going places every day. I don’t think you can keep up with me.” As for her choice of hospitals, she says, “I have one word—gratitude.”

For a physician referral or for more information about orthopaedic services at Baylor Dallas, call 1.800.4BAYLOR or visit us online at BaylorHealth.com/DallasOrtho.

3500 Gaston Avenue., Dallas, Texas 75246

Budget Blues

Dallas does not need a property tax increase; we need the appraisal office to bring all homes up to current valuation [February Advocate “Last Word: Budget Bad and Getting Worse”]. I bought a new house in Vickery Place for $600k so my property taxes are high, but when I checked the records I am paying more than the FIVE homes across the street from me combined because their valuations are so low, even less than their land value. If everyone paid a fair valuation we would not be in this predicament.

—KIERAN CLIFFORD, VIA E-MAIL

The city budgeting process is deceptive.

First, in public presentations in the past two years, various city leaders like the mayor never provide apples-to-apples comparisons for the citizen to follow. We can’t really figure out what is happening without lots of extra work. Second, last year at Winfrey Point, the citizens made their points clearly. Do not hire 200 new police officers and do not issue any new bonds until we have a better understanding of how our economy would be affected by the crisis unfolding. Third, the city manager started out with a “dream budget” that needed to be cut by $190 million. The reality was that the “dream budget” was a fraud and purposely deceptive.

Finally, last year at public meetings we indicated that we did not want any tax rate increases, no tax or fee increases at all. Were we listened to? No. Will the current budget, including other services, really spend less than the previous one? Will fees for other services rise again this coming year for things like water, Love Field, gas bills as they did this year? Will they really lay off employees from all the city functions?

—EUGENE DAVIS, VIA E-MAIL

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