Source: City of Richardson.
There is a quote attributed to former Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois) about overspending by the federal government: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
In north Texas, we talk about pennies, but it still adds up to real money — $54 million, in the case of the City of Richardson's sales tax revenue that is dedicated each year to DART public transit service. For Plano, it's over twice that. And that has led Plano, and some of the other thirteen member cities of DART, to consider withdrawing from DART, or at least threatening to, and saving that penny of sales tax for any other purpose they want to put it to. This is an outcome that Richardson, which, from its fortuitous location at the intersection of two major DART lines (the Red/Orange line and the brand new Silver line), does not want to see.
Mayor Amir Omar held a town hall meeting at the Coram Deo Academy on Thursday, October 23, 2025, where he and Council member Arefin fielded questions from about 20 members of the public. The news that emerged from the meeting (or news to me at least) was that a solution to the DART funding crisis appears to be within reach.
Mayor Omar spoke of meetings involving DART officials and the thirteen member cities. He said: "I think that they can come forward with a plan to city managers where the one penny can become .75 of a penny over the course of five or ten years. There's a few plans on the table right now for that. You could even hypothetically have them at three and a half percent growth each year, and they would still be able to grow, not get cut, but still be able to slowly, over 10 years, give rebates back to the cities that would eventually amount to .25 of a penny. More to come. It's going to be coming quickly, one way or the other, in terms of what the solutions might be."
That's the most optimistic prediction I have heard. Stay tuned.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
"Cities count pennies,
dream of tracks without DART trains.
Freedom or failure?"
— h/t ChatGPT
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