Leaders in Dallas voted Tuesday to advocate fully funding Dallas Area Rapid Transit during next year's legislative session. The decision came after weeks of debate over the language in the city’s list of state legislative priorities.
Last month, the council's transportation and infrastructure committee added an item to the city’s legislative program that would support “fully funding” DART. That was in conflict with another item proposed in another committee that would call for restructuring DART's sales tax contributions.
Dallas city council members on Tuesday largely pushed back on efforts to potentially cut DART's funding.
“My community depends on DART and I believe this city and this region depends on DART as a viable means of transportation,” said District 4 council member Carolyn King Arnold. “Riding the bus, DART being the major mode of transportation for the working poor is non-negotiable."
Several member cities including Plano, Rowlett and Irving have passed resolutions in recent months to support reducing their funding for the transit agency. Each member city contributes one penny per sales tax dollar to fund DART’s services.
Those cities argue they are overpaying for DART's services and aren't seeing the benefits of their contribution.
District 11 council member Jaynie Schultz said she’s been in contact with the city’s northern suburbs about the issue.
“I offered to work with them on a north service area plan, and that was rejected," she said. "So I'm not sure that this is about improving transportation at all."
District 12 council member Cara Mendelsohn said she wanted to remove “fully funding” DART from the legislative program in a last-minute motion to change the city’s priorities.
“We know that our suburbs… have passed resolutions and have already drafted legislation that will be brought forward for sure, and it will be looking at possible ways to restructure both debt as well as contribution,” Mendelsohn said. “If we proceed with the item that said support full funding for DART, we've really excluded ourselves from that conversation.”
Mendelsohn added that the language to restructure DART leaves the city in a more “flexible” position on the issue.
“What is possible if we stick with the support full funding is that we have the worst case scenario, meaning the suburbs will get restructured and have a reduced contribution, and we will not,” Mendelsohn said.
Dallas holds the majority of the DART board of directors' 15 seats. Randall Bryant, one of eight Dallas representatives on the board, urged the council to support fully funding the agency.
“It is very important for this body to continue to show unity and strength to the penny itself,” Bryant said. “There have been six cities, so not a majority of the 13 cities, not a majority of the population, not a majority of the funding that comes to DART, has been represented by this small contingency of other member cities, regardless if they're suburban or not.”
The council voted to remove the item to restructure DART, hence supporting full funding for the agency as part of its priorities in the upcoming legislative session in Austin next year.
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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