DES MOINES, Iowa — Drama has unfolded after seven suburbs, who all use DART services, sent a letter to the City of Des Moines calling on it to pass a franchise fee to pay for future services.
The mayors of West Des Moines, Urbandale, Clive, Johnston, Windsor Heights, Altoona and Bondurant stated in a letter that the City of Des Moines must agree to a new funding formula by December 1st, and if it doesn't, those seven cities will withdraw from their agreement with DART.
The frustration stems around the amount cities are paying.
According to DART, currently Des Moines funds 36% of the total amount of property taxes collected by DART, but is using over 70% of the services. That leaves the seven suburban cities to pay over 60% of the bill while using under 30% of the services.
An initiative called "Reimagine DART" has goals to bring fiscal stability to its services. However, with that comes fee increases for the cities.
Reimagine DART was unanimously passed three years ago, and all cities were included in that vote.
DART says if Des Moines were to pass a 2.5% franchise fee, that it would cover a portion of the city's total contribution and provide at least 10 years of financial stability.
However, Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen stated, "My colleagues and I on the city council are interested in only passing a new franchise fee to provide better services and long-term financial stability."
The statement also claimed, "DART’s current proposal is to collect the full franchise fee increase with no improvements to the system."
Local 5 reached out to all the mayors involved, DART and the City of Des Moines, but they all declined interviews. Instead, DART provided Local 5 with statements.
"While Des Moines and the suburbs do not agree on how participating communities should fund the system, we are fully committed to continuing conversations with the City of Des Moines in hopes of finding a path forward on funding transit as we redesign the system through Reimagine DART," said Russ Trimble, mayor of West Des Moines. "I have spoken to the suburban mayors - we are all committed to this process and all hopeful we can come to agreement that balances the interests of taxpayers and riders throughout DART’s service area."
DART also shared a statement from Boesen who said "we have not ruled out allocating additional funding to DART, but believe continued conversations on how communities fund DART are necessary. We also look forward to seeing how we can enhance transit access for residents of all DART member communities through a reimagined transit network."
Finally, DART itself weighed in sharing its goals for the next steps.
"We need a regional system to compete with other Midwestern cities on quality of life, economic development and business growth," said Amanda Wanke, CEO of DART. "I am committed to supporting further conversations that help our member communities find a path forward that sustains and strengthens our regional transit system."