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Irving weighs DART interlocal agreement: billions at stake, council split over signing and ballot removal
Summary
City staff outlined a six‑year DART ILA that would return GMP dollars (ramping to a combined 10% with RTC match) and proposed governance changes that reduce Dallas' vote share; councilmembers debated whether to accept the ILA and remove a withdrawal election from the ballot, citing funding returns (~$54–55M estimated for Irving over six years), governance gains and remaining concerns over audits, debt issuance and service restorations.
City Manager Chris Hillman and council members spent the Feb. 26 work session debating whether Irving should accept a proposed interlocal agreement (ILA) with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) that would return a share of DART’s general mobility program (GMP) dollars to member cities and pursue negotiated governance changes.
Hillman framed Irving’s interest as a value‑for‑dollar question. “Our value proposition, to be perfectly frank, is butts in seats,” he said, describing the city’s goal of ensuring DART investments produce usable service and ridership. Hillman said DART’s FY26 budget reduced two Irving bus routes (225 and 255), cutting roughly 29% of the city’s local bus service and reducing the number of rail stations with direct bus feeders from eight to three.
The ILA staff described would return 5% of DART’s sales tax receipts to member cities in year one (an amount DART has budgeted), then increase the share by 0.5% annually while the Regional Transportation…
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