Proposed Legislation Could Change How DART Spends Money in Member Cities

By Connor Hulla on April 5, 2023

If you care about how much money is spent on public transit in your city, then you might want to tune in to the latest (April 4th) board meeting of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). It might not be the most entertaining thing to do on a Tuesday night, but it’s an excellent opportunity to learn about an issue that might impact you.

During the meeting, the board discussed a proposed legislation that would require DART to provide services to its member cities at a proportional cost to what each city spends. For example, if Garland contributes $50 million in sales tax to DART, the agency would be required to spend $50 million on services in Garland.

Paul Wageman, the board member representing the City of Plano, appears to be the most concerned about the impact of the potential changes. Plano has been in discussions with DART about this issue for the past two years, underscoring its significance. Based on my observation of the meetings, it appears that the other cities are less concerned, although I could be mistaken.

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For context, here is a report from 2019 illustrating the disparity between how much DART spent on public transit service in each city and how much each city contributed to DART.