The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board of directors is divided over its response to growing calls from some of its member cities to cut the agency's funding.
Seventy-five percent of DART's funding comes from its 13 member cities, which each contribute one cent per sales tax dollar. In recent months, some cities — including Irving, Plano and Rowlett — have passed resolutions in support of reducing that penny by 25%.
On Tuesday, DART’s chief communications officer Jeamy Molina shared a presentation addressing the agency’s proposed priorities for the upcoming legislative session next year.
“One of the big things is to make sure that we're working with other transit agencies and stakeholders to support bills or agendas as they're moving forward,” Molina said. “Then oppose any legislation that could detrimentally impact DART’s mission, finances, governance or operations, including DART’s changes to the sales tax statute.”
The board voted overwhelmingly not to approve the list of priorities.
“This is not ready, in my view, for approval tonight,” said board member Paul Wageman, who represents Plano.
Wageman said he would not support staff’s proposed priorities until there was further discussion with stakeholders, including member cities.
“I think given what's going on in our region, given the fact that a significant number of our cities are expressing through resolutions their concerns about the current sales tax contribution,” Wageman said, “we need to have more discussion about what our agenda should look like, and how it should be formulated at the board level.”
Wageman added that there should be more consideration for the communities that board members represent to make room for changes to the legislative agenda. Wageman has already proposed cuts to services for Trinity Railway Express, which is jointly operated by DART and Trinity Metro, in recent meetings.
“As it relates to my city, my duty is to the citizens of Plano,” Wageman said.
Board chair Gary Slagel — who represents Richardson, University Park, Addison and Highland Park — was one of only two members who voted to move the legislative priorities forward.
“We ought to have on an agenda to work with the legislature to find a way to increase revenue to the city's state revenue or from some source, give money back to the cities who need that money,” Slagel said. “Because we have been working hard to develop a transit system.”
Slagel addressed the north-south divide between member cities and where they stand on sales tax contributions, pointing to northern suburbs that have bigger budgets for economic development.
“That is the problem,” Slagel said. “I just cannot support the effort that I'm hearing from the cities who need more money. We’ve got to find a solution for that, but it shouldn't be taken money away from DART.”
Slagel said not all member cities want to reduce their sales tax contributions. Recently, city council members in both Richardson and Garland expressed their support for the agency. Slagel added that as board chair, his obligation is to DART, not to member cities.
Doug Hrbacek, who represents Irving and Carrollton, proposed holding further discussion during a future meeting after the board is briefed on the findings of two ongoing studies: one by Ernst & Young looking at cost allocation by member cities, another by the Regional Transportation Council’s plan to expand transit services by 2050, dubbed Transit 2.0.
Patrick Kennedy, who represents Dallas, supported Hrbacek’s proposal for more discussion, but noted that his loyalties lie with Dallas residents.
“There's always going to be times where cities’ interests, individual cities’ interests and DART’s interests, are not going to be fully aligned,” Kennedy said. “To me, I would rather that sales tax go to DART because I serve the citizens of Dallas, who far outnumber some city council people or city staffers that would like to get their hands on that revenue as well.”
The board agreed to further discuss legislative priorities at a meeting on Sept. 24.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org. You can follow him on X @pabloaarauz.
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