CTroyMathis
19 January 2003, 09:21 PM
DeSoto: Transit measure blocked
City won't back effort to allow DART hopefuls new funding options
01/17/2003
By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/city/southwest/stories/011703dnsoudart.558ae.html
DeSoto has rejected a resolution urging the Legislature to allow cities to raise extra money needed to join DART.
The DeSoto City Council denied, on a 3-3 vote last week, the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition resolution that would seek to open up other revenue streams to cities that want to join Dallas Area Rapid Transit but are at the sales tax rate cap. DART members have to add 1 cent to their sales tax rate.
Even if the Legislature were to approve the new law, cities' residents would still have to vote to become DART members.
DeSoto, which is at the tax cap, is the only southwest Dallas County city to reject the resolution. Duncanville and Lancaster have approved it, and Cedar Hill has yet to consider the measure from the coalition, a regional association of 27 cities and five counties.
"I can understand why DeSoto is more reluctant to pass it," said Grady Smithey, who is a coalition member representing the area and a Duncanville council member. "And I understand light rail's not in the near-term future for us down here. But rail is not the basis of an entire mass transit system.
"The bus system would carry a whole lot more riders, but rail's sexy and buses aren't. It's like Marilyn Monroe is light rail."
Therein lies the problem for the southwest Dallas County area, Mr. Smithy said. He said the area should pin its hopes on commuter rail and not the more expensive light rail.
Commuter rail, such as the Trinity Railway Express that runs between Dallas and Fort Worth, uses existing lines. An existing rail line runs through Duncanville to Cedar Hill and on to Midlothian. Another line between Dallas and Waxahachie runs through Lancaster.
DeSoto, though, has no rail line within its boundaries.
Bobby Waddle was one of the DeSoto council members who voted against the resolution.
"I just wanted to look at it a little longer, kind of see what's going to transpire," Mr. Waddle said. "You never know what's going to come out of the Legislature. I'm just not real comfortable with it right now."
Jim Strom, another council member who voted no, said he had the feeling that the council would be committed if it voted for the resolution.
"I think it [the council's support] could sway people to think that the council supports joining DART," Mr. Strom said.
He also cited concerns that DeSoto might lose its sales tax commitment to economic development, which is three-eighths of a cent.
Former Mayor Ernie Roberts told the council last week that he had similar concerns that DeSoto's pledge to economic development would evaporate if the council approved the resolution.
Mayor Michael Hurtt said he believes some of the blame for the resolution's failure should fall on him for not fully explaining the measure.
"I think there are a lot of people in DeSoto who equate mass transit with a poorer class of people who depend on that to get to work," said Mr. Hurtt, who supported the resolution. "Plus, I just don't think this [resolution] was for us; it was more for cities like Allen or Coppell, where light rail might be going through to get to McKinney. For them, light rail is a lot closer than for us. It would be 30 to 35 years down the road before light rail comes to us. There are DART member cities that have been waiting for light rail for nearly that long."
DeSoto's rejection of the measure will have little effect on the coalition's push.
James McCarley, the coalition's executive director, said most DART nonmember cities have passed the resolution. He said some cites have expressed an interest in phasing in their membership. Mr. McCarley said that because some cities at the sales tax rate cap have economic development debt to pay off, they want the option to dedicate that money eventually to mass transit.
"We call it our penny-from-anywhere resolution," Mr. McCarley said.
That's another reason DeSoto's council may have denied the resolution. If the equivalent of 1 cent on the sales tax rate came from the property tax rate, it would mean raising that rate 14 cents per $100 of valuation.
City won't back effort to allow DART hopefuls new funding options
01/17/2003
By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/city/southwest/stories/011703dnsoudart.558ae.html
DeSoto has rejected a resolution urging the Legislature to allow cities to raise extra money needed to join DART.
The DeSoto City Council denied, on a 3-3 vote last week, the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition resolution that would seek to open up other revenue streams to cities that want to join Dallas Area Rapid Transit but are at the sales tax rate cap. DART members have to add 1 cent to their sales tax rate.
Even if the Legislature were to approve the new law, cities' residents would still have to vote to become DART members.
DeSoto, which is at the tax cap, is the only southwest Dallas County city to reject the resolution. Duncanville and Lancaster have approved it, and Cedar Hill has yet to consider the measure from the coalition, a regional association of 27 cities and five counties.
"I can understand why DeSoto is more reluctant to pass it," said Grady Smithey, who is a coalition member representing the area and a Duncanville council member. "And I understand light rail's not in the near-term future for us down here. But rail is not the basis of an entire mass transit system.
"The bus system would carry a whole lot more riders, but rail's sexy and buses aren't. It's like Marilyn Monroe is light rail."
Therein lies the problem for the southwest Dallas County area, Mr. Smithy said. He said the area should pin its hopes on commuter rail and not the more expensive light rail.
Commuter rail, such as the Trinity Railway Express that runs between Dallas and Fort Worth, uses existing lines. An existing rail line runs through Duncanville to Cedar Hill and on to Midlothian. Another line between Dallas and Waxahachie runs through Lancaster.
DeSoto, though, has no rail line within its boundaries.
Bobby Waddle was one of the DeSoto council members who voted against the resolution.
"I just wanted to look at it a little longer, kind of see what's going to transpire," Mr. Waddle said. "You never know what's going to come out of the Legislature. I'm just not real comfortable with it right now."
Jim Strom, another council member who voted no, said he had the feeling that the council would be committed if it voted for the resolution.
"I think it [the council's support] could sway people to think that the council supports joining DART," Mr. Strom said.
He also cited concerns that DeSoto might lose its sales tax commitment to economic development, which is three-eighths of a cent.
Former Mayor Ernie Roberts told the council last week that he had similar concerns that DeSoto's pledge to economic development would evaporate if the council approved the resolution.
Mayor Michael Hurtt said he believes some of the blame for the resolution's failure should fall on him for not fully explaining the measure.
"I think there are a lot of people in DeSoto who equate mass transit with a poorer class of people who depend on that to get to work," said Mr. Hurtt, who supported the resolution. "Plus, I just don't think this [resolution] was for us; it was more for cities like Allen or Coppell, where light rail might be going through to get to McKinney. For them, light rail is a lot closer than for us. It would be 30 to 35 years down the road before light rail comes to us. There are DART member cities that have been waiting for light rail for nearly that long."
DeSoto's rejection of the measure will have little effect on the coalition's push.
James McCarley, the coalition's executive director, said most DART nonmember cities have passed the resolution. He said some cites have expressed an interest in phasing in their membership. Mr. McCarley said that because some cities at the sales tax rate cap have economic development debt to pay off, they want the option to dedicate that money eventually to mass transit.
"We call it our penny-from-anywhere resolution," Mr. McCarley said.
That's another reason DeSoto's council may have denied the resolution. If the equivalent of 1 cent on the sales tax rate came from the property tax rate, it would mean raising that rate 14 cents per $100 of valuation.