proposed legislation this year<\/a> to allow cities to divert 25 percent of sales tax money earmarked for DART toward other transportation projects instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n“You\u2019re talking about taxpayers at the end of the day,” he said. “Citizens in Plano pay an extra penny in sales tax whenever they buy goods and services to fund DART and they\u2019re just not getting the services back in return.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
To assuage lawmakers, DART proposed a “general mobility program” to reimburse cities up to 5 percent of the sales tax money, but later attached strings to any deal that would have, among other restrictions, limited cities from lobbying against DART in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve been trying to make good faith efforts to work with DART to address this unequitable situation we find ourselves in today,” Shaheen said.<\/p>\n
The decisions next week on whether to put withdrawals on the ballot in May will affect DART riders beyond the member cities, DART officials said. Losing the roughly $110 million Plano alone contributes to the system will likely cause service impacts across the remaining cities, too, Lee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I understand a lot of people want a dollar in, dollar out, but that\u2019s just not the way things work,” Lee said. “I\u2019m really heartbroken for the riders because I think the riders who are impacted don\u2019t really have a voice in this right now.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
DART’s newly-elected Board Chair Randall Bryant said the moves from the three cities run county to the call for unity he made after being elevated to the position Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It is my goal and hope and my staff\u2019s goal and hope that we keep every city every rider within the system,” Bryant said, acknowledging the concerns raised by the cities but saying “this is just not the way to solve them.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement announcing the decision to have a special-called City Council meeting next Wednesday, the City of Plano said, “Despite Plano\u2019s repeated efforts to address this imbalance, DART has maintained that it requires every dollar it receives.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Given these circumstances, city leaders believe it is time to ask residents directly: should DART continue to operate in the City of Plano?” the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Highland Park and Farmers Branch both said they plan to discuss potential DART withdrawal elections at their Nov. 4 meetings. In a statement, Farmers Branch said it is not withdrawing from transit as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The city remains steadfast in its commitment to accessible and reliable transportation for all residents. The city will continue working toward mobility solutions that meet community needs and strengthen regional connectivity,” the statement read.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Highland Park’s Town Council said it receives “minimal direct transit services” with only a single bus route along Preston Road that averages 60 riders a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The town\u2019s annual contribution, while minimal compared to the overall DART budget of $1.7 billion, constitutes a significant fiscal outlay for a municipality of just 2.2 square miles, particularly as Highland Park continues to address the maintenance and modernization of a century-old public infrastructure system,” the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano, Highland Park and Farmers Branch say their city councils will consider calling an election to leave the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-27208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27208","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=27208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}