tysker said:
Arlington voters continue to vote against mass transit because of a lack of usage and obvious need for the community.
not exactly...
How public transportation works in North Texas
Municipalities in the D-FW area that have public transportation Irving, Grapevine and Lewisville fund it through tax revenue they use to buy in to transit authorities based in Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton: DART, Trinity Metro and Denton County Transit Authority, respectively. State law stipulates that member cities of a transit authority must all pay the same sales tax toward running public transportation. To join DART, cities like Irving commit a 1% sales tax; for Trinity Metro and DCTA, member cities pay 0.5%.
The catch is that, again per state law, cities can only levy an additional 2% over the state's own 6.25% sales tax. Generally speaking, 1% of that goes to a city's general fund, which is used for areas such as public safety, parks and libraries. The rest goes to transportation and whatever else a city's residents vote to spend on.
For example, in Fort Worth, that extra half cent after the general fund and Trinity Metro goes toward a crime prevention fund.
Arlington, however, without mass public transportation, has used a 0.5-cent tax to pay for sports stadiums, beginning with the original Globe Life Park in 1991.
Given the 2% cap on local sales tax, though, Arlington would likely be unable to join a transit authority as a full member today even if it wanted to because of ongoing stadium payments.
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The 0.5% sports venue tax, along with hotel and rental car taxes that also go toward the stadiums, was most recently renewed in 2020 to fund Globe Life Field, the Rangers' new retractable-roof stadium that will
cost the city $500 million to be paid off over around 30 years. The city also still has
a little more to go to pay off its $325 million share of the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium approved in 2004. Arlington paid off the debt on Globe Life Park in 2001.
