Another North Texas city wants to cut funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
The Rowlett City Council last week approved a resolution to reduce its sales tax contribution to DART by 25%. The city said it allocates about $10 million annually to the agency via a 1-cent sales tax imposed on member cities.
Mayor Blake Margolis said the symbolic resolution isn鈥檛 about dropping membership in DART.
鈥淭his is about DART鈥檚, in my opinion, flawed business model and the desire to incentivize an efficient operation that will benefit the riders, member cities and DART,鈥� he said.
The Plano City Council passed a similar resolution last month, and Dallas is also weighing funding cuts.
Explaining the resolution, Margolis cited issues with ridership tracking and DART鈥檚 dependence on sales tax revenues.
DART receives 75% of its revenue from member cities鈥� contributions, according to . Agency documents show sales and use taxes made up 78% of DART鈥檚 revenue last year, compared to 61% in 2022.
In the memo, Lee said cuts would negatively impact services and hurt the agency鈥檚 budget. DART did not respond to 四虎影院鈥檚 request for comment.
Rowlett鈥檚 resolution, like Plano鈥檚, is symbolic. The decision to reduce sales tax contributions would ultimately be up to the board of directors that represents DART鈥檚 13 member cities.
Council member Elise Bowers supported the resolution, but said she hopes more people start taking public transit as the area鈥檚 population grows.
鈥淚 am very concerned with the number of ozone days that we have had and the amount of traffic that we have coming through,鈥� she said.
Margolis stressed that he is 鈥渘ot against public transportation.
鈥淲hat this resolution is about is about advocating for an efficient system that does not over-rely on taxpayer dollars to service approximately 4% of individuals in DFW,鈥� he said. 鈥淒ART has a money problem.鈥�
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