'Ridiculous’: GOP official fumes over unpaid Trump convention bills

The Dallas city government is facing a budget shortfall, and a bill from the Republican Party for $804,229.46 for the midterm convention remains unpaid.

According to the itemized bill, Dallas lent money to police, Fire-Rescue, emergency management and crisis response, transportation and public works for the GOP, but it remains unpaid. The largest expense came from the Dallas Police Department, which spent more than $661,000 on the convention. The police costs cover overtime, barricades and vehicle use.

Kevin Oden, the director for Emergency Management and Crisis Response, said in his bill, "The final costs were substantially lower than the preliminary planning estimates discussed with the Finance Committee in August. The overwhelming majority of these expenses were on-duty personnel costs already accounted for within adopted departmental budgets, rather than additional unbudgeted expenditures associated with the convention."

The costs were less than half of the estimated amount for August, which was about $2 million.

Yet, as Houston Public Media reported, the GOP still hasn't cut a check to reimburse the city.

"It's unclear if they will," the report said.

Council member Maxie Johnson is furious and called it "absolutely ridiculous."

"I'm just really uncomfortable, and I feel that this is wrong that this has not been rectified at this moment," she added.

Oden told Johnson that they planned to receive a "contractual reimbursement from U.S. Capitol Police before invoicing organizers for the rest of the cost."

The Capitol Police handle security only when local security is needed for members of Congress, while the Secret Service is the agency that handles the president.

"City officials said that historically the Secret Service has not reimbursed Dallas for helping with that," the report said.

Oden also said that there are two possible entities that are on the hook for the payments, "either the RNC or the host committee, whichever pays the bill back."

The host committee he's talking about is the Dallas 2026 Host Committee, which raised at least $45 million for the convention, said that it would try to reduce the costs incurred by the governments.

"But it's unclear how much it intends to pay or if there's a formal agreement between city leaders and the committee," the report said. Oden referenced "a contractual reimbursement" in his statement, implying a contractual agreement.

Council member Kathy Stewart asked that Oden keep the council updated on the status.

"It is our job as stewards of our taxpayer dollars to watch over something like this and to make sure that we do get that reimbursement," Stewart said.

Dallas has a $30 million budget shortfall. It comes, in part, from the Police Department, which said it overspent its overtime budget, with over $2.7 million in bills.

Council member Chad West was glad to see the city fighting for reimbursement. "I think we should invoice them and continue following up until we get paid," he said. "Or we hit a dead end, and then we take another route."

There's a long history of President Donald Trump's campaign ignoring bills from municipalities. In July 2020, Trump had more than $2 million in unpaid security bills that had piled up from Pennsylvania to New Mexico. The city of Albuquerque sent the campaign to collections.