North Texas transportation leaders see an opening to advance long-standing regional priorities after this month's election, including greater local control over transportation funding and more investment in transit and other transportation options, the region's transportation director said.

Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told the Regional Transportation Council last week he believes some of the policies the organization has advocated for years could gain traction under the state's incoming leadership.

The Regional Transportation Council is the 45-member policy board for North Texas' federally designated metropolitan planning organization, which oversees regional transportation planning and the allocation of federal transportation funds. The North Central Texas Council of Governments is a voluntary association of 238 local governments across 16 counties that provides regional planning, coordination and technical expertise, including transportation support for the regional council.

Related: North Texas growth shifts transit representation toward Collin County

Morris' comments came soon after Democrats won the Texas governor's office, lieutenant governor's office and control of the Texas House. Republicans retained control of the Texas Senate.

"We're strong advocates of local control and the control of local elected officials," Morris said.

The council also supports multimodal transportation investment, including transit, as North Texas grows from about 9 million residents toward 12 million, Morris said.

He said the region cannot solve its congestion problems with a single transportation strategy.

"You're not going to solve all these congestion problems in a few tools," Morris said. "You're going to need a lot of tools."

Morris pointed to greater housing density around rail stations as one way the region could make better use of its transportation network.

North Texas transportation officials are preparing to develop their priorities for the 2027 Texas legislative session. Regional officials have already identified issues including transit funding, local control, public-private partnerships and the redistribution of state transportation dollars as potential priorities.

Morris said one area where the regional council could see movement is the distribution of federal air-quality and congestion-mitigation funding.

Federal law allows the state to use up to half of the region's air-quality funds for other purposes, Morris said. He said conversations could emerge about returning more of that money to metropolitan regions for local transportation and air-quality projects.

The regional council also wants more state transportation money to flow directly to metropolitan planning organizations and local transportation officials.

The council's preliminary 2027 legislative policy framework calls for seeking about $200 million a year in state sales tax revenue for the region, $100 million annually from the Texas Mobility Fund, and about $50 million a year in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds. It also proposes a $100 million annual state budget rider for regional rail.

Morris said those proposals are policy positions rather than political positions.

"I would say the RTC is very much in the middle of the road of good government policy," he said. "And I think we're now back to potentially gaining some traction."

The election also could change the political environment around the Texas Transportation Commission, the five-member panel that governs the Texas Department of Transportation, and state transportation policy, Morris said.

He pointed to public-private partnerships and other innovative financing methods as areas that could return to the conversation.

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.

© 2026 The Dallas Morning News.
Visit www.dallasnews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.