Special to Texas Metro News
On behalf of this office and my constituency, I cannot tell you how dismayed I was to read the second paragraph of a recent article, “Dallas City Council could consider diverting DART funding to address the pension crisis.”
It read like the patented old-school Dallas tradition of reverse Robinhood.
“Council members have been exploring ways to fill the city’s pension gap faster. One approach would involve sending DART 25% less in sales tax revenue, according to council members Tennell Atkins and Paula Blackmon, who sit on the city’s committee on pensions.”
Business executives quickly employ the quip, “If you build it, they will come.” However, too many people, especially in Dallas’s southwest and southeast zip codes, need a means to get there. Any heist that would rob DART of 25% of its tax revenue will have a net chilling effect on all the work we have invested in my district and in the booming Inland Port area.
As a representative of this office, I share the concerns about the mismanagement in the city’s pension system. However, I cannot stand by and watch as our future workforce is jeopardized and a significant quality of life issue in the Southern Sector is ignored.
This is not just a matter of policy, but a personal concern for me.
Isn’t it profaning enough that the community that needs public transportation the most has less access to rail than the “better offs?”
This same community continues to decry that DART erased a large number of bus stops under the pretense of economic lack.
Redirecting funds that were specifically voted on for DART to a failing pension plan is a disservice to the public.
This issue, which suspiciously surfaced days after a bond election, further undermines the public’s voice.
It’s time to remind our elected officials that they work for us, not the other way around.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Councilman Tennell Atkins remarked, “It’s just a discussion right now.”
We need to end the discussion right now— point Blank, Period!
