The future of DART remains uncertain as a fifth city in North Texas, Addison, will consider withdrawing from the transit agency. On Tuesday, the town council will decide whether to give voters the final say during an election this spring. 

Plano, Farmers Branch, Highland Park and Irving have already placed the issue on the ballot in the spring. The cities have said they’re not getting the amount of service from DART that they have paid through their penny sales taxes. 

In a statement, a DART spokesperson told CBS News Texas they are aware of the upcoming Addison Town Council vote. “DART remains committed to negotiating transparently and in good faith to ensure North Texans have access to transit solutions that work best for them.”

The city of Plano recently submitted a new proposal to DART that would continue rail service and express buses there but end most other bus service. The city would have to come up with an alternative for paratransit services to comply with federal law. In exchange, the city would ultimately keep half of its yearly contribution to the agency. DART is still reviewing that proposal. 

CBS News Texas spoke with two state lawmakers about this issue: Republican Representative Matt Shaheen of Prosper, and Democratic Representative Mihaela Plesa of Dallas. Both of their districts include parts of Plano.

Plesa said she worries about the impact this situation could have on the region. “I am a little concerned, especially after the TXDOT report that just came out that said that Texas is way too car-centric, and with the massive amounts of people that are moving to our state daily, that we need to work on our public transit systems.” 

“Withdrawal isn’t theoretical,” said Plesa. “It triggers an immediate shutdown of all DART services. GoLink, federally required paratransit at 12:01a.m. the exact next day. So, unless cities like Plano, Addison, and all these other cities that want to leave the DART system have a fully funded, ready to go, federally compliant transit system ready on day one, it’s going to leave a lot of people without any options. I wasn’t against Plano leaving DART. What I am against is the city of Plano not having a federally compliant system ready to go the next day.”

Shaheen expressed disappointment and frustration over the situation. “This is a reflection on the failure of DART. We’ve been trying for six years to work with DART to come up with some kind of financial accommodation that works with Plano and some of these other cites that are putting in way more money than they’re receiving in services and DART has refused to work with us.” 

Shaheen said he is concerned about the commuters and others who rely on DART and said the city of Plano is focused on their citizens’ needs. “If you look at Plano, they have alternatives they’re considering. Evena service where they leverage Uber and it’s about a tenth of the cost they’re paying DART.”