ROWLETT, Texas — Rowlett City Council unanimously approved a resolution to reduce the allocation of sales and use of tax revenues to Dallas Area Rapid Transit at their meeting on Tuesday, July 2. The resolution will reduce the tax allocation from the current value of one cent to 0.0075 cents.
This decision was made to address Rowlett's taxpayer concerns about the balance between the financial contributions and services received from DART.
"This resolution is not about severing ties with DART, but about ensuring that the financial contributions made by Rowlett are justified by the level of service we receive,” Mayor Blake Margolis said
Rowlett is just one of many cities considering reducing their tax allocation to DART. The city of Plano, which is the second largest contributor to DART behind Dallas, unanimously approved a similar quarter-cent tax reduction in late June.
At a University Park City Council meeting on July 2, members postponed a resolution on their agenda supporting capping the sales and use tax revenue for DART.
Rowlett taxpayers have contributed more than $138 million to DART since 1983, which includes over $10 million annually, according to Margolis. He said DART's reliance on sales tax revenue has continued to grow and now exceeds 76% of its quarter-cent total revenue.
Margolis said this decision was made to "encourage DART to operate more efficiently," according to a press release.
However, Rowlett, Plano or any other DFW suburb lack to power to actually change their tax contributions to DART. The DART board is the only body that can approve a restructuring of their funding model, so these suburban councils are largely pushing these ordinances to make a point: no taxation without transportation.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is the fifth largest metroplex in the country and ranks 17th out of the top 50 urbanized areas with the most transit travel, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Yet, DART ridership is still approximately 30% below pre-pandemic levels. Compared to 2019 when DART had more than 69 million riders, there was an estimated 48 million riders in 2023.
"Only 2.6% of DART’s total revenue comes from fares, highlighting the need for improved fare enforcement and operational efficiency," Margolis said. "This resolution, while symbolic, is an important first step in a multi-step process that we hope will produce the results desired.”
