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DCTA takes conservative approach, approves lower budget than last year at $64.2 million

An image of a Denton City Transportation Authority bus.
File photo
/
Denton Record-Chronicle
The Denton County Transportation Authority has approved a budget that is about $6 million less than the previous year.

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.

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鈥檚 critical to take a conservative approach moving forward because DCTA could have a potential negative net income in .

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鈥檛 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 to Lewisville and Highland Village, .

鈥淚n general, there鈥檚 a lot of things that we鈥檙e working on in fiscal 鈥25 that are carryovers from fiscal 鈥24 because we鈥檙e working on some big, big goals, like the A-train enhancement program, like the intermediate service plan, those sorts of things,鈥 DCTA CEO Paul Cristina said during Thursday morning鈥檚 board meeting.

鈥淵ou鈥檒l see where those things are straight carryovers from one year to the next.鈥

The budget will go into effect Oct. 1.