UPDATED February 27.
Plano City Council has decided not to let voters weigh in on whether the city should ditch its Dallas Area Rapid Transit service.
Council members voted unanimously Monday night to take a DART withdrawal vote off the May ballot and instead accept a new compromise plan for continued participation in the regional transportation system.
The 40-year-old DART system operates light rail, bus, on-demand, and disability transportation services in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, funded with a one-cent sales tax from 13 member cities: Addison, Carrollton, Cockrell Hill, Dallas, Farmers Branch, Garland, Glenn Heights, Highland Park, Irving, Richardson, Rowlett, Plano, and University Park.
Plano, the largest contributor to DART funding after Dallas, was the first of six cities to place a measure on the May 2 ballot asking voters if they want to exit the expensive and inefficient system.
Since then, DART has been courting the cities to drop their ballot measures in exchange for smaller financial burdens and a larger say in the system’s governance.
Now that Plano officials want to stay in DART, they no longer want voters to decide the issue.
The new funding agreement approved by the DART board earlier this month calls for the system to return a percentage of cities’ tax revenue contributions over the next six years to spend on transportation-related projects.
A second new agreement calls for expanding the board from 15 to 22 members and allowing each member city a seat on the governing body.
Other member cities that had been willing to let their voters decide are also reconsidering based on DART’s new deal.
On Tuesday, Farmers Branch City Council members voted to rescind their previously approved DART election, while Addison officials chose to keep their DART measure on the May ballot and let voters decide.
Irving City Council members voted 7-2 on Thursday to cancel their withdrawal election and take the new DART deal.
Highland Park and University Park are the other two member cities that have called a May DART election.
All 13 member cities are being offered the new agreements, whether or not they threatened to withdraw.
