DART says it will fight in Austin to keep funding

Dallas Area Rapid Transit signaled Tuesday it will formally oppose legislative measures aimed at decreasing its funding.
Members of the agency’s Committee-of-the-Whole approved the agenda during a regular meeting. The move allows DART to “oppose legislation that could substantially impact DART’s mission, finances, governance or operations; including changes to DART’s sales tax statute.”
The vote comes just a few days after several member cities in a presentation Friday told DART they had until Nov. 11, the deadline for pre-filing state bills, to agree to a plan that would return up to 25% of tax contributions to cities.
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Six of DART’s 13 member cities — Plano, Irving, Rowlett, Farmer’s Branch, Carrollton and Highland Park — have passed resolutions supporting reducing tax funding to the transit agency by a quarter. The cities pay a penny sales tax — a 1% tax on every dollar spent — as members.
Officials from cities supporting cutting funding have said they are not getting the value they should from DART, citing concerns about crime, cleanliness and ridership.
Doug Hrbacek, who represents Carrollton and Irving, was the only committee member to oppose Tuesday’s resolution.
“I would prefer to wait until Transit 2.0 is — we know the output of that, and we’re just not there yet,” Hrbacek said. “…In terms of the one-cent sales tax, we have 13 member cities and six of them have passed resolutions that are in conflict with this.”
The city of Dallas today passed a resolution in favor of fully funding DART as part of its own legislative agenda. It joined the list of member cities — which includes Addison, Garland and Richardson — that have formally supported maintaining DART funding.
North Central Texas Council of Governments staff also proposed supporting DART funding as part of its draft legislative priorities last month, though members of the Regional Transportation Council — which includes officials from DART member cities — expressed opposition. The council will vote to adopt its final legislative agenda this month.