Mckinney Allen Dart Mass Transit? (Dallas, Plano: sales, houses, subsidized)

[calvary2191]

Hi. My husband and I are looking to relocate from Chicagoland. We have visited McKinney and Allen and like them both.

Would either city be close enough (with morning traffic) to go to the Plano train stations for the train into Dallas....or is it really too far? How many minutes, approximatley, would it be from McKinney? From Allen?

Thanks!

[FarNorthDallas]

Many folks from Allen and McKinney (and even Sherman-Denison) drive to the end of the line of DART in Plano. I'm not sure how long the commute would be though. Hwy 75/Central is pretty congested through Plano, Allen and McKinney.

[lh_newbie]

I used to live in Allen at Greenville/Exchange. It would take me ~15 minutes in morning traffic to get to the DART station in Plano. It would take another 50 mins to get into downtown on the DART.

NOTE: If you don't get to the DART station before 7:30, you aren't going to find a parking spot. It fills up very quickly. They could easily double the parking spaces and fill it.

[texasplanner]

The cities north of Plano (Allen, McKinney, Sherman) are not member cities of DART. If they were, they would be on the plan to get rail service. There is a plan to expand parking at the Parker Road light rail station in Plano (end of the line for the Red Line) as well as Bush Turnpike. If you drive to Arapaho Center, about 15 minutes further, there is plenty of parking. I live between the Red Line and Blue Line and go to Downtown Garland rather than mess with Parker Road.

[Gustav]

According to McKinney City planners (I spoke to a few), McKinney has no plans to enter agreements with DART. They have already imposed the optional local sales tax to the maximum 8.25%, and cannot (will not) reallocate tax revenues to other projects (DART). Raising the maximum would require a change in Texas tax law, which conservative North Texas lawmakers are reticent to propose.

For commuters from McKinney, this means autos only for a large portion of the trip. The population of Collin County has increased significantly in the last four years. In 2000, the population of McKinney was 54,369 (according to Stats about all US cities - relocation info, maps, race, income, photos, education, crime, weather, houses, etc.). In 2006, that population had exploded to over 107,000 (97.8%)!

As you might imagine, traffic on the two lanes (each way) of US 75 is jammed almost all the time. A 20 mile commute can take more than 90 minutes. Car pooling is not very popular because demands on workers and families create difficulties in scheduling.

If anyone is interested in changing things, and there are likely a few thousand who are, I suggest a strong petition to city leaders to hear these arguments and respond.

Thank you.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by Gustav

According to McKinney City planners (I spoke to a few), McKinney has no plans to enter agreements with DART. They have already imposed the optional local sales tax to the maximum 8.25%, and cannot (will not) reallocate tax revenues to other projects (DART). Raising the maximum would require a change in Texas tax law, which conservative North Texas lawmakers are reticent to propose.

For commuters from McKinney, this means autos only for a large portion of the trip. The population of Collin County has increased significantly in the last four years. In 2000, the population of McKinney was 54,369 (according to Stats about all US cities - relocation info, maps, race, income, photos, education, crime, weather, houses, etc.). In 2006, that population had exploded to over 107,000 (97.8%)!

As you might imagine, traffic on the two lanes (each way) of US 75 is jammed almost all the time. A 20 mile commute can take more than 90 minutes. Car pooling is not very popular because demands on workers and families create difficulties in scheduling.

If anyone is interested in changing things, and there are likely a few thousand who are, I suggest a strong petition to city leaders to hear these arguments and respond.

Thank you.

On the contrary, I think there is massive support in the area to provide mass transit for McKinney and Allen. The local politicians are all behind it. The problem is to force the state to allow them to raise the sales tax limit to pay for it. The state wants to reserve the sales tax increases for itself, and is concerned that raising the limit would preempt their ability to raise it even more.

I heard that the story about taxes is like getting down by plucking feathers from a goose. You want the maximum number of feathers with a minimum of hissing. Raising the McKinney sales tax from 8 1/2% to 9 1/2% for mass transit would seriously limit the supply of extra feathers and ensure some royal hissing if the state raised the tax even further.

This is a case where pressuring your local representative is futile. He's already trying as hard as he can. But the need is to be able to force legislators outside of the area to give DFW what it wants. Right now, the attitude is that DFW can drown in its own congestion. Perhaps the DFW legislators can get together and use their combined clout to do some dirty and wicked politics.

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by aceplace

...
I heard that the story about taxes is like getting down by plucking feathers from a goose. You want the maximum number of feathers with a minimum of hissing. Raising the McKinney sales tax from 8 1/2% to 9 1/2% for mass transit would seriously limit the supply of extra feathers and ensure some royal hissing if the state raised the tax even further.
...

Raising sales taxes to 9.5% would equal the highest in the country and would probably devastate retail sales in McKinney. Worse than that you would be taxing the many to benefit the few. Probably not a workable plan.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by cdelena

Raising sales taxes to 9.5% would equal the highest in the country and would probably devastate retail sales in McKinney. Worse than that you would be taxing the many to benefit the few. Probably not a workable plan.

The classic argument for the existence of tax subsidized public works is that it's impossible to determine who benefits from the subsidy. Your argument is like saying that only your blood cells benefit from the veins and arteries in your body. In actual fact, the increased mobility afforded to the people of McKinney is incalculable.

I'll agree that 9 1/2% is higher than 8 1/2%, but a lower non-DART tax rate doesn't seem to have helped decaying municipalities like Mesquite or Duncanville. Plus, it's up to the people of McKinney to decide if the sales tax increase is worth it or not... in view of the 70% plus votes for DART in other municipalities such as Addison and Plano, a transit vote would most likely be succesful even with a sales tax increase. Most likely, the municipality would eliminate marginal and spurious sales tax spinoffs such as subsidies to businesses.

[CallMeLaura]

I'm against raising taxes to bring DART to McKinney. I work out of the Infomart (when I'm not working from home) and there's no easy way to get there via public transportation. Frisco and Allen aren't that far away to go shopping...

Now, I'm not against DART coming to McKinney, just raising taxes to do it.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by CallMeLaura

I'm against raising taxes to bring DART to McKinney. I work out of the Infomart (when I'm not working from home) and there's no easy way to get there via public transportation. Frisco and Allen aren't that far away to go shopping...

Now, I'm not against DART coming to McKinney, just raising taxes to do it.

According to DART, reaching the Infomart is easy and convenient. From the West End rail station, you take the #26 bus to Wycliff and Hines, which is across the street from the Infomart. The trip takes 9 minutes. The #26 line is perhaps the most frequent in the DART system and has a bus every few minutes. When the new Green line starts service in 2010, there will be a rail station next to the Infomart, and will allow an easy commute for people from Plano, or those who can reach it.

DART would not necessarily come to McKinney... more likely it would be a seperate transit agency that would just connect to the DART station in Plano. It would probably be similar to the DCTA agency that will operate a train in Denton county.

You're entitled to vote on the issue, Laura, and the people of Collin county can make a choice between no alternative to bad traffic congestion or a tax increase for transit. Unfortunately, your community will not get rail service for free. I would think that McKinney would have about the same majority for a transit tax increase as Denton and Plano did... overwhelming support in favor.

The problem is that the State of Texas is currently denying the people the opportunity to vote, in order to raise the state sales tax when they find it convenient and keep the money for themselves. McKinney will have a tax increase. That is as inevitable as death. The issue is whether it stays in McKinney or goes into the state legislature pork barrel.