DART to review expenses after reduced sales tax predictions

This week, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) officials announced they will review all expenses— including operations, administration and future capital projects after receiving projection that sales tax receipts for fiscal-year 2010 will be between $15 million and $20 million below the original estimate of $387.8 million.

The reduced projection comes on the heels of lower than anticipated sales tax receipts in 2009, DART President and Executive Director Gary Thomas said in a prepared statement. The agency collected $378 million in sales tax in FY2009. The original projection for that year was $431 million.

In addition, updated 20-year sales tax projections show DART receiving approximately $3 billion less in sales tax income than previously predicted.

Despite the lower projections, current projects — such as the Green Line and the Lake Highlands Station on the Blue Line, both scheduled to open in December, and the Blue Line extension from Garland to Rowlett, scheduled to open in December 2012 — will not be affected, according to the agency.

More than 75 percent of DART’s funding comes from the collection of a 1 percent sales tax in each of the agency’s 13 member cities. Other revenue sources include fares, interest income and federal funds. Sales tax receipts also are used to secure debt to fund major capital projects.