advertisement

---

Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s (DART) board will consider service changes and staff reductions for fiscal-year 2012 as part of an agency-wide financial review. Services levels mostly have been set already for FY2011.

The aim: cut FY2012 expenses by $30 million to $60 million. However, the board plans to collect additional sales tax information during the next nine to 12 months before making any final decisions, DART officials said in a prepared statement.

In addition to possible service cuts, the agency might need to eliminate 300 to 600 jobs, officials estimated.

Staff cuts would occur through a combination of attrition, the elimination of vacant jobs, early retirement and voluntary separation over a two-year period. Layoffs would occur only if all other approaches did not produce the required number of position reductions, DART officials said.

In March, the agency projected lower-than-expected sales tax revenue. Updated 20-year sales tax projections show DART receiving about $3 billion less in sales tax income than the amount projected in May 2009. More than 75 percent of the agency’s income comes from the collection of the 1 percent sales tax in each of the 13 cities DART serves.