The Candidates Speak Out On DART

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit system has become a major whipping boy in the campaign for the April 4 election of a Dallas mayor. DART is expected to build a $1.2 billion bonded debt by the year 2010, and they plan to do it without voter approval. As the debate intensifies, here is what the four most visible mayoral candidates have to say about DART:

Jim Buerger says the mayor and city council of each DART city are the only elected representatives the citizens have for DART, since they appoint the members to the DART board. He also thinks the Dallas delegation, with fourteen of the twenty-five board members, should control the DART agenda.

“I believe that the Dallas representatives should have been charged by the city council to fulfill the city of Dallas’s wishes,” Buerger says. Although there is no legal provision making the DART board members responsible to the city council, Buerger believes that the mayor and council members should take a more active interest in the board’s doings. ’As mayor,” he says, “I would make DART an agenda item |of the city council) at least monthly, probably weekly. It wouldn’t take much time to ask “are we on track?’”

Fred Meyer: “In my opinion DART is running a severe risk of a recall election. A lot of voters think they were sold a bill of goods, especially when [DART] started talking about issuing billions of dollars of bonds without voter approval.” After DART was presented to the voters, a change in the state law created a loophole that made it legal for DART to issue long-term bonds without voter approval. Meyer thinks DART’s decision to use that loophole is a breach of faith. “It’s the end of DART if they issue bonds without voter approval,” he says.

Jim Collins: ’I think we should get the federal government to fund our mass transit construction. They’ve been doing it for all those other cities.” And former congressman Collins thinks he is just the man with the federal connections to bring home the cash.

Collins says that DART is drawing attention away from the road systems of Dallas, and he would like to see DART spend some of its money buying right of ways to widen existing freeways and to build toll roads.

Annette Strauss is the only candidate who defends the actions of the DART board and staff. “Now is the time to acquire debt, since interest rates are so low. Charles Anderson |DART’s executive director] has said that the tunnel under Central couldn’t be built without going into long-term debt. So [if it were voted down] we would be back to discussing using the MKT line or double-decking Central, and it would cost more in the long run.” As mayor, Strauss says, she would leave the DART board alone and let it work. She thinks that with Anderson. DART will be able to handle any potential problems, even the withdrawal of a suburb from the system. “Chuck Anderson is optimistic about the future of DART. If he’s confident, I’m confident,” she says.