The Denton County Transportation Authority Board of Directors approved a $64.2 million budget for fiscal year 2025, nearly $6 million less than the previous year.
DCTA plans to allocate $51.9 million for operating expenses and $24.9 million for large investments or major maintenance projects. To account for the surplus expected between operating and maintenance expenses, DCTA expects to cover some expenses through other means, which could mean additional funding or financing.
The current year’s budget is about $70 million.
The budget was discussed in multiple meetings over the summer, and the transit agency talked about undergoing many changes.
Officials said it’s critical to take a conservative approach moving forward because DCTA could have a potential negative net income in 2035 and 2036 if it doesn’t begin lowering operating costs.
The agency said that in the future it would need to lower operating costs, form more partnerships with other cities and increase ridership through the University of North Texas.
There have been talks about lowering operating costs for the intermediate service plan, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the agency will stop supporting it.
The intermediate service plan went into effect during fiscal year 2024 and saw a major shift, including GoZone vehicles being shifted from the city of Denton to Lewisville and Highland Village, along with adding more bus stops and bus routes in Denton.
“In general, there’s a lot of things that we’re working on in fiscal ’25 that are carryovers from fiscal ’24 because we’re working on some big, big goals, like the A-train enhancement program, like the intermediate service plan, those sorts of things,” DCTA CEO Paul Cristina said during Thursday morning’s board meeting.
“You’ll see where those things are straight carryovers from one year to the next.”
The budget will go into effect Oct. 1.
