The devil works hard, but David Lethe works harder.
Notice that he sources basically none of his claims because the context generally weakens his argument.
For example, the rise in priority response time he cites can be found here: https://dart.org/about/about-dart/key-performance-indicator under "Security Performance". While priority response time is up vs November 2025, Group A offenses and arrests are down by a few dozen each. It is also possible that many officers were on holiday leave which may have affected staffing as every industry is during the holidays. Regardless, response time is still lower than it was in DEC 2024 and has not exceeded the threshold this year at all. Surely David supports having well rested police officers who get to see their families.
He also doesn't mention that Arlington is also raising their fares. Rides will cost $3-$8 effective this march, and paratransit rides are going up 50% to $3 each way and they are reducing service to city limits only. DART paratransit is more expensive at 4$ a ride, but covers 13 cities and a 1.5 mile radius outside DART service area, far better access than arlington. DART Day passes have not risen past 6$ and regional passes are decreasing in price from $12 to 9$ this year.
The argument from DATA has never been that Plano doesn't deserve more service, it absolutely does for the amount of money it pays into the system. That said, it is being corrected via the GMP, where Plano will be getting tens of millions of dollars in refunds at the cost of some bus routes that they say they don't want anyways. If there is less service in Plano, one might want to look inward at Plano leadership for pushing DART defunding legislation at the last session.
And here's Via's ridership declining rapidly despite Arlington paying a similar amount each year. This is because micro-transit costs don't scale well and unlike DART's funding model, Arlington isn't adjusting for inflation. These 2 factors meant Arlington cut service this year. Similarly Mansfield did a 1 year pilot of city-wide micro-transit and then shut it down due to costs.
Here is a document from DART on the value provided to Plano and the steps the agency has taken to respond to documented requests from Plano leadership.
Strong breakdown of the EDC dynamics. The point about corporations playing cities against each other for incentives is key here, especially when you factor in the 10-year lease cycles. Saw that pattern play out in similar debates in Austin where companies leveraged better deals elsewere after initial incentives expired. The DART funding inflexibility creates a trap tho, cities can't diversify revenue even if they wanted better transit witout a full legislative overhaul.
No, we want to pull out of DART because it costs Plano taxpayers $130 million to provide transportation for a few thousand people daily & system still losing money and ridership, especially on the $2.1 BILLION DOLLAR Silver line that has less than 1/3 the ridership promised when it was pitched
98.8 of Plano households have at least one car and prefer to drive.
DART is raising rates again and running routes less frequently.
DART is lobbying to take lanes away in downtown Plano and put in bike lanes. They refuse to station police at ALL stations ( let alone trains ) during full operating hours
New crime stats are out for December , and priority one response time where there is imminent risk of human life or theft jumped from 3 minutes to 5:16 minutes
Arlington has citywide transportation for $3-$5 at taxpayer cost of $6.1 million in 2025
DART STILL CANT COVER ALL OF PLANO FOR $130 million
The devil works hard, but David Lethe works harder.
Notice that he sources basically none of his claims because the context generally weakens his argument.
For example, the rise in priority response time he cites can be found here: https://dart.org/about/about-dart/key-performance-indicator under "Security Performance". While priority response time is up vs November 2025, Group A offenses and arrests are down by a few dozen each. It is also possible that many officers were on holiday leave which may have affected staffing as every industry is during the holidays. Regardless, response time is still lower than it was in DEC 2024 and has not exceeded the threshold this year at all. Surely David supports having well rested police officers who get to see their families.
He also doesn't mention that Arlington is also raising their fares. Rides will cost $3-$8 effective this march, and paratransit rides are going up 50% to $3 each way and they are reducing service to city limits only. DART paratransit is more expensive at 4$ a ride, but covers 13 cities and a 1.5 mile radius outside DART service area, far better access than arlington. DART Day passes have not risen past 6$ and regional passes are decreasing in price from $12 to 9$ this year.
The argument from DATA has never been that Plano doesn't deserve more service, it absolutely does for the amount of money it pays into the system. That said, it is being corrected via the GMP, where Plano will be getting tens of millions of dollars in refunds at the cost of some bus routes that they say they don't want anyways. If there is less service in Plano, one might want to look inward at Plano leadership for pushing DART defunding legislation at the last session.
And here's Via's ridership declining rapidly despite Arlington paying a similar amount each year. This is because micro-transit costs don't scale well and unlike DART's funding model, Arlington isn't adjusting for inflation. These 2 factors meant Arlington cut service this year. Similarly Mansfield did a 1 year pilot of city-wide micro-transit and then shut it down due to costs.
https://i.imgur.com/XFn5BjV.png
From Arlington's FY 2026 budget, page 170:
https://www.arlingtontx.gov/files/assets/city/v/6/finance/documents/budget-amp-business-plan/adopted-budget-documents/fy-2026-adopted-operating-budget-and-business-plan.pdf
Jitneys are not real public transit.
Here is a document from DART on the value provided to Plano and the steps the agency has taken to respond to documented requests from Plano leadership.
https://dartorgcmsblob.dart.org/prod/docs/default-source/about-dart/value/2025-12-22_dart-fact-sheet-multi-plano.pdf?sfvrsn=39eb95bf_1
Lethe must be a follower of the evil Randal O'Toole.
Strong breakdown of the EDC dynamics. The point about corporations playing cities against each other for incentives is key here, especially when you factor in the 10-year lease cycles. Saw that pattern play out in similar debates in Austin where companies leveraged better deals elsewere after initial incentives expired. The DART funding inflexibility creates a trap tho, cities can't diversify revenue even if they wanted better transit witout a full legislative overhaul.
We need to lobby and campaign as hard as possible to make sure voters in the 5 towns do not withdraw.
No, we want to pull out of DART because it costs Plano taxpayers $130 million to provide transportation for a few thousand people daily & system still losing money and ridership, especially on the $2.1 BILLION DOLLAR Silver line that has less than 1/3 the ridership promised when it was pitched
98.8 of Plano households have at least one car and prefer to drive.
DART is raising rates again and running routes less frequently.
DART is lobbying to take lanes away in downtown Plano and put in bike lanes. They refuse to station police at ALL stations ( let alone trains ) during full operating hours
New crime stats are out for December , and priority one response time where there is imminent risk of human life or theft jumped from 3 minutes to 5:16 minutes
Arlington has citywide transportation for $3-$5 at taxpayer cost of $6.1 million in 2025
DART STILL CANT COVER ALL OF PLANO FOR $130 million
Vote out DART