On City Hall Plaza today, some 20 tax opponents
paraded with signs,
using words like irresponsible and wasteful to
describe the proposed tax hike.
The no-tax forces say if you want to raise
money to repair the leaking roofs
and crumbling buildings of Fair Park,
you could use part of the one-cent sales tax
now being collected for DART.
You could take a half a penny away from DART
for a year and accomplish the same goal.
You wouldn't be adding any tax burden to the
citizens that wasn't already there.
Right now, when you shop in Dallas, ¢one of the
sales tax you pay
goes to the regional mass transit system
serving 14 cities.
Last year, Dallas' penny tax raised about $110 million.
No tax opponents say that instead of adding a
new tax,
spend half the DART tax on Fair Park.
They're completely unrealistic and absolutely unworkable.
Sales tax supporters like Glenn Box say
opponents know that until 1997,
state law forbids cities from withdrawing tax
money from regional transit systems like DART.
But tax opponents say they know Dallas
lawmakers may introduce legislation to lift
that restriction.
Doing this to DART and DART having to rethink
their situation
would probably be the best thing that would
happen to the citizens of Dallas.
Tax supporters say the legislature won't bite.
I think that they would allow one city of 14 to
take its money and use it for its own purposes
as fantasy land.
Dart says if Dallas could withdraw its money,
bus service would be cut, new rail construction delayed,
and the regional system of public
transportation would crumble.
Shelley Koffler, Texas News 5.