Plano considers cutting DART funding by 25%

On Monday, the Plano City Council is set to debate cutting DART funding by 25%.

Continuing to fund DART is key to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in Collin County. Already, DART displaces more than 150,000 cars from our roads, and as ridership bounces back from the pandemic, that number is increasing.

When Dallas considered and rejected a similar funding cut earlier this year, DART CEO Nadine Lee warned that cutting the sales tax would also necessitate severe cuts to DART service.

“Any reduction in the one-cent sales and use tax rate (sales tax rate) would significantly and detrimentally impact services DART provides to our region. The net impact of collecting 0.75% sales tax instead of our current 1% is $6 billion less revenue over the life of the current 20-year financial plan. For context, an amount of this magnitude is equivalent to the entire capital budget for bus, light rail, and agency-wide facilities and technology projects for the next 20 years, including mission-critical items like modernizing our nearly 30-year-old light rail system, replacing our aging light rail and bus vehicles, replacing hundreds of bus shelters and benches, and investing in bus corridors to enhance speed and reliability.”

Tell the Plano City Council to say no to DART funding cuts.