If Dallas' population growth trend continues, it could lose one of the eight seats on the Dallas Regional Rapid Transit Authority's 15-member board of directors, as well as the simple majority needed to advance transportation priorities. There is.
Some are concerned about that possibility, as one Dallas City Council member, Rodney Schlosser, said Monday during a joint meeting of the board and the city's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Dallas is the core of DART's operations and has historically accounted for the majority of DART's service population and sales tax collections, primarily due to its population.
But now, since 2010, Dallas' population growth has lagged behind that of neighboring cities. DART estimates Dallas County will lose 5,000 residents between 2020 and 2023, with the population loss concentrated in the city of Dallas, according to new census data last month. Due to demographic changes, Dallas could lose one of its seats to a suburban neighbor by 2030.
The loss of voting rights could make it difficult for Dallas to support projects in the 13-city transit network if other member cities feel they won't benefit.
“There's a difference of opinion about what some people in Dallas think are priorities and what people in the suburbs think are priorities,” he said, outspoken about how the loss of the majority would play out. Schlosser said. He also noted that Dallas' share of DART's sales tax revenue is not growing as quickly as its suburban peers.
Since 2015, that share of contributions has fallen below 50%, with the remaining suburban cities collectively contributing more.
Schlosser said Monday's press conference was not intended to “alarm anyone” and was simply a continuation of a conversation he had with City Councilmember Janie Schultz. Change is inevitable, he said, and policymakers are best prepared for it.
For DART board member Enrique McGregor, who sits in the seat Dallas could lose, the impact of demographic change boils down to cultural differences in “how Dallas views transit and the suburbs.” Much of the difference is due to the way the car is driven. Highly dependent, sparsely populated suburbs tend to be compared to Dallas. Dallas is also experiencing population decline in the same suburbs.
(Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer)
Dallas has 7 seats instead of 8.
Councilwoman Carla Mendelsohn asked Schlosser if it was important for the city to appoint seven board members instead of eight. “So, we have eight seats today. But can we come together as a majority and work together to support Dallas?” Mendelsohn asked.
Mendelsohn wasn't sure if the city's delegation was cohesive enough to move forward with the Dallas-centered project. She brought up her D2 subway project downtown, which was first proposed as an idea in 2007. The project was conceived as a way to strengthen DART's footprint in Dallas' city center by reducing congestion on all lines that converge downtown. However, persistent issues with ridership and the search for a less “capital intensive” plan led DART leadership to remove the project from its list of top priorities, at least for the foreseeable future.
Mendelsohn said the board could have come together to protect the project before it was removed from DART's 20-year financial plan last year.
Schlosser said board members work closely together to advocate for priorities for Dallas that make sense from a regional perspective, and that many of those discussions are being “cross-suburban, where there isn’t always alignment.” “It involves incredible compromises.” Additionally, the push to maintain a Dallas majority often comes from Mendelsohn's colleagues, Schlosser said, referring to Dallas City Council members.
“We have to realize that if we added other cities, we would expect some degree of governance that would almost certainly exclude Dallas, which has eight of the 15 seats,” he said. “That’s how mathematics works.”
Schlosser, a former Dallas Park board member, also brought up the topic a year ago, saying the delegation needs to consider future priorities as changes occur.
Last year, at a Transportation Committee meeting regarding a $234 million sales tax refund to the city, Schlosser said the transit agency was in a situation where “suburban members of the DART board went from dissatisfied to extremely dissatisfied.” Stated.
“The flame of disagreement”
Despite cities presenting a united front on operational issues such as keeping buses and trains clean, safe, and on schedule, suburban DART board members are often at odds with other members. , said they felt DART was underserving their city despite their financial contributions. Their question is: Are they getting the benefit of the transportation they are paying for?
“Disagreements erupted” at a board meeting last year, Schlosser said. His DART board members from the suburbs, like Plano representative Paul Wageman, are advocating for changes that could change how DART is structured and voted.
One course of action reached the Texas Legislature. Last year, Plano Assemblyman Matthew Shaheen introduced HB 3146, which relates to “information included in the annual financial audit of certain local transportation authorities.” The bill ultimately died in committee.
Another possible strategy is to allocate board seats based on tax revenue rather than population.
When choosing between population and tax revenue, the stakes can change dramatically. During last year's debate over refunding excess sales tax funds, this distinction created a scenario in which Garland would have received nearly $21 million if it decided to use population as a metric to recover the funds. I did.
But if we used sales tax contributions as a filter, we would have only gotten $10 million. In Plano, the situation was different. Based on population, Plano would have earned $24 million. He contributed $28 million in sales taxes.
Suburban DART board members also request a two-thirds majority vote to remove the board from a simple majority of eight votes and instead change the number of decisions to 10 to add services to the project. I hope.
At a December 2022 meeting, Irving Mayor Richard F. Stopfer said the measure was a way to “level the field” and counter the perception that Dallas controlled the board's priorities. He said he thought so. “Sometimes you feel like no matter what you do, someone is controlling you,” Stopfer said. “You are at their mercy or under their control.”
Stopfer said the measure is a “double-edged sword” because it would force suburbs to rally support for the cause. Meanwhile, DART board members in Dallas questioned whether the measure would really address the problem, since the board tends to vote unanimously on major projects and plans.
That said, the board still has not adopted the two-thirds policy, and tensions remain largely confined to closed-door meetings.
But recently, DART's 10-year strategic plan, a vision statement detailing the transit agency's goal of moving “from an occasional service to a strategic economic and mobility asset,” has been delayed. I frowned.
The plan was scheduled for a vote on March 26, as per the DART board members meeting agenda. But the vote was postponed to May because suburban board members wanted a two-thirds vote on the policy.
Mark Abraham, a DART board member who represents Garland and is a vocal supporter of the two-thirds measure, declined to comment.
Former DART board member John Bertrell Killen told the Dallas Morning News that calls for supermajority votes are mostly rooted in trying to protect minority rights.
“It is fair and reasonable to ensure that all the funds and all the services that DART can provide are not funneled to certain communities, especially at the expense of other communities that do not have the opportunity to consider voting. I think,’ ask questions,” Killen said.
But Killen would be concerned about Dallas if the simple majority rule were changed. “There has been no demonstration that the same people who are demanding higher voting thresholds are committed to investing in or improving assets and services,” he said.
