The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board of directors is hoping some of its member cities will reconsider their calls to cut the agency’s funding as it approaches a looming deadline to resolve the debate.
On Wednesday, DART CEO Nadine Lee provided an update to the board on the agency’s discussions with each member city. Several have passed resolutions seeking to cut their contributions to the agency, citing issues with its governance, services and economic development.
The issue seems to be headed to the Legislature, and the Regional Transportation Committee has said it will pull support for DART's "status quo" funding if the agency can't reach an agreement with cities by February.
“We've had meetings with our cities in the past, but this really brings to fruition the areas of concern,” said Carmen Garcia, one of the Dallas representatives on the board.
The letter from Plano
The board received a letter last week from Plano Mayor John B. Muns asking the agency to, among other things, pay the city back a quarter of its funding from 2024 and 2025 over the next two years.
The letter cites a recent report by the consulting firm Ernst & Young that provided a snapshot of the agency’s spending relative to its cities' contributions.
“The $65 million inequity highlighted by the Ernst & Young (EY) report is of great concern to the City of Plano,” Muns wrote.
The city is asking the agency to sign an interlocal agreement and provide back payment of its sales tax contributions. A majority of DART’s revenue comes from a one-cent sales and use tax its member cities pay. Six of those 13 member cities, including Plano, called to reduce that funding by 25% earlier this year.
If the agency doesn’t respond, Muns said, the city will continue to pursue changing the one-cent funding model for the agency in the upcoming state legislative session.
Earlier this year, the transit advocacy group Dallas Area Transit Alliance posted a copy of draft legislation it obtained in on open-records request on the subreddit r/DART, which calls to reduce the sales tax by 25%.
The bill hasn't yet been filed so it's unknown who may be sponsoring it, but DART board member Mark Enoch confirmed the bill's existence during the Wednesday meeting.
In response, board members are considering ways to meet the needs of member cities while defending its current funding model from legislative change.
“This is a very serious thing that's fixing happen to DART, and we have the ability to modify that, or just put a little finger in the dike, if we can,” said Enoch, who represents Garland, Glenn Heights and Rowlett.
Enoch said he’s personally spoken to leaders at each member city and plans to ask them if they will reconsider their resolutions to reduce DART’s funding.
“I want to have no resolutions down there on a 25% cut back, because I know what that means for the region and it would be devastating for the region,” Enoch said. “That’s probably not realistic, but we all leave here with responsibilities.”
Question of governance
Lee, DART’s CEO, said several cities have expressed issues with the agency’s governance, claiming that representation for Dallas outweighs that of the suburban member cities. But director Enrique MacGregor, who represents Dallas and Cockrell Hill, shot back, calling it a “false narrative.”
“Some member cities are concerned that Dallas controls the decision making process, and if anybody feels that way, all they need to do is look at the voting record on any controversial issue that we've dealt with, and you'll see that that is not the case,” MacGregor said.
The board also discussed concerns by member cities over how directors are picked to serve, also known as apportionment.
Representation on the 15-member board is based on cities' populations, but the board could consider different governance structures that would instead take into account sales tax contributions and employment in each city.
Board Chair Gary Slagel also floated the option of changing the board’s apportionment system to an election, where voters would pick who represents them on the board.
“I understand that elections are expensive, so I think we have to do quite a bit of projecting what it would cost DART to do that,” MacGregor said.
Most board members agreed that they want to meet cities’ demands in order to stave off calls to cut funding, but Plano representative Paul Wageman said the board is dismissing the cities’ concerns.
“We have a meeting today to talk about the needs these cities have and the concerns they have about the level of service and attention that DART pays to them,” Wageman said. “Now we're ending this meeting by saying, let's go get the other cities to support DART, because that's telling the six cities: ‘Go pound sand.’”
The board plans to meet again on Jan. 8.
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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