TX: Dallas City Council committee recommends fully funding DART amid state proposed cuts

A committee of Dallas City Council members voted Wednesday to recommend the city support leaving Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s funding structure untouched amid two proposed state laws that could cut member cities’ contributions by up to 25% each.

The council’s transportation and infrastructure committee vote came after the seven-member group approved creating the resolution of support during a Feb. 18 meeting. The resolution calls for Dallas to continue paying the 1-cent sales tax levied on all 13 cities DART services and “urges local, regional, and state governments to prioritize sustained investment in the public transit system to ensure its long-term viability and success.” The sales tax contributions are DART’s main source of revenue.

The full City Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the resolution Mar. 26.

Council member Omar Narvaez, the committee’s chair, said the resolution was requested by Dallas’ representatives on the DART board of directors and would show other North Texas cities also in support of fully funding DART.

“We are leading on this, and maybe give them some cover as well to do the same thing,” Narvaez said. Rowlett officials adopted a similar resolution on Tuesday.

State lawmakers last month filed two identical bills — House Bill 3187 and Senate Bill 1557 — that would require DART shift up to 25% of the sales tax revenue it collects back to each of its member cities through the creation of a new general mobility fund. The fund could be used to pay for local projects like road construction, sidewalk maintenance and drainage improvements.

The proposed legislation is in response to clashes between officials from the transit agency and about half of its member cities that passed resolutions in support of cutting their sales tax contributions, which roughly total $870 million a year to DART. Officials from cities like Plano and Irving, which are among DART’s largest sales tax contributors, cite years of poor service and a lack of financial transparency from the transit agency as key reasons to curb their investment.

Officials from DART and cities like Dallas who support keeping the funding as is fear cuts could lead to a heavy reduction and some eliminations of bus and rail service for residents across North Texas.

“We see that any city taking money back would be affecting every city that’s within DART,” said Jake Anderson, Dallas’ interim director for the office of government affairs.

“This is a problem that needs to be solved here locally amongst the cities with the DART board, and we’re going to continue to push for that rather than any sort of changes at the Legislature.”

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