Why Buy the Cow When You Get the Milk for Free

Dallas business leaders seem to love rail, but they don't want to pay for it. This is about investing in the future, so it annoys me when people complain about high taxes when it would directly benefit them to pool resources. People are complaining about their mobility and traffic, but if they aren't willing to pay for a change, where is it going to come from? All of this emphasis on tolls and private company operation is just a way to shift taxes to make a small group of people money, not about solving problems or serving the taxpayers.

But many of those ideas are already being explored by the transit systems, and won't produce the nearly $200 million a year it would cost to operate the expanded rail network, proponents said Thursday. "This is not a plan to build out the rail system by 2025," said DART board member Mark Enoch, referring to the position paper distributed by Mr. Ritter. "It's a plan for how to avoid raising the sales tax rate." Voters want rail more than they want lower costs for businesses, and that is a fight they may have to take to the Legislature again, Mr. Enoch said.