{"id":160677,"date":"2026-02-11T23:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160677\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:52:19","slug":"dart-board-approves-new-funding-governance-plan-amid-withdrawal-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160677\/","title":{"rendered":"DART board approves new funding, governance plan amid withdrawal negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDallas Area Rapid Transit officials are taking the first steps to establish a new funding and governance model in negotiations with member cities considering withdrawal from DART.<\/p>\n

At their Feb. 10 meeting<\/a>, DART officials approved initial proposals for a plan that could lead six DART member cities to consider canceling their upcoming withdrawal elections. The DART board will consider final approval at its Feb. 24 meeting.<\/p>\n

What happened<\/p>\n

Nearly half of DART\u2019s 13 member cities have now scheduled withdrawal elections, including Plano, Highland Park, University Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and Addison.<\/p>\n

DART board Chair Randall Bryant presented an alternative funding model at the Feb. 10 meeting that would give the equivalent of 25% of DART sales tax receipts back to the member cities for six years. Funding would be distributed to all 13 cities based on sales tax collections, meeting documents state.<\/p>\n

The board approved the new funding plan 14-1, as well as a new governance plan<\/a> that would shift more voting power to the suburban cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a seamless system. I wholeheartedly support this,\u201d Dallas board representative Roy Lopez said. \u201cThis is the only way I think we can save DART.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some context<\/p>\n

Since calling special withdrawal elections last fall, several DART member cities have been in negotiations<\/a> with the agency, submitting written proposals that if approved would cause them to cancel their elections.<\/p>\n

Plano City Manager Mark Israelson said at a Feb. 9 meeting that the city has received a \u201cmeaningful\u201d proposal from DART in negotiations, causing Plano City Council to table<\/a> a vote to approve a contract for its alternative transit system.<\/p>\n

“There are several actions that would need to happen over the next two weeks for that offer to really materialize, but those are very meaningful actions that will be taken,” Israelson said.<\/p>\n

What it means<\/p>\n

DART\u2019s proposal is similar to Plano\u2019s recent January proposal<\/a>, which modified DART\u2019s general mobility program interlocal agreement for all 13 member cities.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s previous general mobility program, approved last March, would have returned $186.5 million to certain cities over six years. The new proposal the DART board will consider would return $434.8 million to all cities for local transit, according to meeting documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The funds for returning 25% of collected sales tax to member cities would be gathered from three sources:<\/p>\n

Guaranteed base funding from DART and the Regional Transportation CommitteeTransferring the regional rail system to an independent management authorityCreating new revenue streamsDART and RTC\u2019s contribution would provide a base of 10% sales tax return, and DART officials would work with other regional authorities to make up the rest of the 25% contribution.<\/p>\n

Meeting documents state DART\u2019s contribution to funding the sales tax return would start at 5% and increase to 7.5% over six years, while the RTC would have fixed dollar contributions and eventually increase to contributing 2.5%.<\/p>\n

The board discussed using vehicle registration fees in nonmember cities as a potential new revenue stream, which Bryant said expansion or new application of would require legislative action.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the services that we provide for our riders, one of our most notable achievements is removing cars from the road,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIf this region is going to experience the growth, and if TxDOT is going to say we need more transit across the state, then those that are benefiting from what we\u2019re doing and those that are advocating for more of what we\u2019re doing have to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"table<\/p>\n

The debate<\/p>\n

Enrique MacGregor, board representative for Cockrell Hill and Dallas, was the only board member who voted against the funding plan. He said that although the proposal showed a good faith effort to work with the member cities, he was concerned that cities would continue to demand more money after the new program is in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt in my mind that except for some possible smaller exceptions, on election day, DART will win,\u201d MacGregor said. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening is now we\u2019re just handing money out to cities that threaten with [withdrawing] as a way to get money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cities would have the ability to decide how to use the returned funds, Bryant said, whether that\u2019s investing in their local transit services or working on roads.<\/p>\n

Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer said his city would use the recaptured funds to support local DART programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get a little frustrated when people say that we\u2019re after a money grab,\u201d Stopfer said. \u201cIt was not set up because we were looking for dollars and cents. It was set up because we\u2019re trying to figure out how to provide a better service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several board members, including board representative for Garland Marc Abraham, said that the new program and the control it gives to individual cities will make it easier for DART to expand and add more member cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to add new member cities,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cThe population\u2019s growing up north [in] Frisco, McKinney, Prosper. That\u2019s where it is, so we\u2019ve got to serve that area, and we\u2019ve got to figure out how, but we can\u2019t do that when we\u2019re infighting with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

CEO Nadine Lee said the plan will have a \u201csignificant impact financially\u201d on DART and could result in reduced services and operations. While the \u201cbest case scenario\u201d would be cities using their recaptured funds to bolster their own DART programs as Irving Mayor Stopfer proposed, Lee said she has not heard many cities make that offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cReducing our services even further will only exacerbate the complaints that we hear from our cities,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe\u2019re accused of having empty buses, and I think the buses will be even more empty because the services just aren\u2019t going to be up to par.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next steps<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking us and our cities and the [North Central Texas Council of Governments] and the region, and ultimately the state, to commit to a process for six years,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n

In six years, the cities who called withdrawal elections would have the ability to call one again. After three legislative sessions and six years of attempting this new process, Bryant said he would understand at that point if member cities again wanted to consider withdrawing.<\/p>\n

Dates to know<\/p>\n

Feb. 12: RTC workshop and potential action on funding partnership programFeb. 23: Collin and Denton County ballot language finalization deadlineFeb. 23: Plano City Council considers alternative transit service contractFeb. 24: DART Committee of the Whole\/Board consideration of new GMP interlocal agreement to replace prior GMP interlocal agreementFeb. 27: Dallas County ballot language finalization deadlineMarch 18: deadline to rescind electionMarch 24: DART public hearing on potential services changesMay 2: withdrawal elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials are taking the first steps to establish a new funding and governance model…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[712,2261,704,18679,713,708,716,715,714,160,718,53117,711,705,23531,723,162,161,721,720,722,709,710,719,53116,706,717],"class_list":["post-160677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-dallas-fort-worth","tag-dart","tag-dart-changes","tag-dart-election","tag-downtown-plano","tag-east-plano","tag-independence-construction","tag-park-and-preston","tag-parker-road","tag-plano","tag-plano-budget","tag-plano-bus-routes","tag-plano-construction","tag-plano-dart-changes","tag-plano-dart-election","tag-plano-fire","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-plano-parks","tag-plano-parks-and-recreation","tag-plano-police","tag-plano-road-closures","tag-plano-road-updates","tag-plano-tax-rate","tag-richardson-dart","tag-richardson-dart-changes","tag-us-75-construction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}