Frequently Asked Questions 

Proposition A is a November 3, 2026  ballot measure to authorize the arena project and add new taxes to help fund the project.

Yes, the ballot measure states "CITY OF PLANO PROPOSITION A: THIS IS A TAX INCREASE"  See City of Plano Election website for a Sample Ballot, or our Voting page.

Prop A would authorize:

• Motor vehicle rental tax: Up to 5%

• Event parking tax: Up to $3 per vehicle

• Event admissions tax: Up to 10% of ticket price

• Venue use tax: Up to $5,000 per game on each member of a major-league team playing there

• Hotel tax: Up to 2% additional, This would bring Plano's maximum total hotel tax to 15%.

Commentary: These taxes would impact anyone staying in a hotel or renting a car in Plano, including your friends and family attending family events (weddings) and holidays gatherings. The taxes increase the cost of doing business in Plano, which will effect everyone in Plano.  Economic research shows that residents, rather than visitors, are burdened by hotel and motor vehicle rental taxes.  See Bradbury.  Public Policy Toward Professional Sports Stadiums: A Review. 

Anyone who rents a vehicle or stays in a hotel anywhere in Plano will pay the additional tax.

Commentary: The vehicle tax is being presented as something visitors will pay and not residents of Plano.  Visitors will be renting cars at DFW and Love Field.  It's Plano residents that rent cars in Plano when their car is in for repair or they need an extra or different vehicle.

The hotel tax will increase the cost of business for people traveling for work impacting all the business/corporate headquarters in Plano.  It will also be paid by residents of Plano if they need a hotel room for themselves (power outage, AC out, home repair), and by their friends and family who come to visit.

The city estimates the arena will cost approximately $1 Billion to construct, with the city contributing $700 million financed through new bonds and other financial commitments.  There will also be additional costs for interest on debt, infrastructure (sewers, roads, utilities, public transportation improvements, etc.), additional administration, likely staffing increases for Police, Fire & EMS, and capital improvements throughout the Arena’s useful life.

The financing is complex.  Only a secondary portion of the funding will come from the new taxes.  The majority of the money will come from property and sales tax from a new Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ).  The TIRZ is a 900 acre area carved out by the City, which includes the 90 acre mixed-use residential, retail & office area, and the 6 acre arena site.

The city calculated the current taxes from the TIRZ to create a baseline.  All future taxes revenue from the TIRZ up to the baseline go to the city as normal income.  Any taxes revenue over the baseline will be used solely for the arena project and to pay off the debt.  

Commentary:  The city and supporters for the arena state that the TIRZ will not cost Plano residents anything.  This is suspect on two fronts:

• Lost Opportunity Costs:  By redirecting TIRZ revenue growth out of the City coffers, the City is unable to use those funds for CITY-WIDE services and functions - such as police, fire, parks, roadways, etc.  By the City’s own estimate it is a loss of $1.6 Billion in City funds.

• Shrinking Baseline: the TIRZ baseline is fixed, and will not grow to match inflation.  Over the 41 years of the TIRZ, the real dollar value of the TIRZ baseline will continue to shrink.  This means the city will have less and less money coming in over the 41 years of the project.

How will the City make up this lost revenue?  A property tax increase?  Likely, as the City’s March 2026 five (5) year projection stated that the City would need to increase revenues in 2 years (without even including addition of the Arena project).

The developers of the area and the Stars went to the city, asking the city to substantially help in building them an arena.  The city doesn't need an arena, the Stars do. It is the Stars and the developers of the surrounding area that will benefit. All revenue from use & operation of the arena (including naming rights, sponsorship rights, luxury box licenses, & ticket revenues) goes to the developers, not the City.  The arena is also the anchor for the rest of the 90 acre development, which will profit the developers but not the city.

Commentary:  The public pays, private interests profit.

Experts on both sides of the political spectrum consistently say arenas are not a good use of public money and do not provide the promised economic benefits.  Studies find that the developments don't add to spending, instead they merely pull spending from other parts of the city (central and East Plano) to the area around arenas.

References:

• Fields of Failure: The Scandal of Taxpayer Funded Stadiums, Citizens Against Government Waste, 2023

• Fiscal Folly: Why Another Sports Arena Won’t Fix Downtown Dallas Candysdirt.com, Feb 2 2026

• Public Policy Toward Professional Sports Stadiums: A Review.  Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Sep 28 2023

• Pay For Your Own Damn Stadium.  The Center For Economic Accountability.  

• Taxpayers Shoulder a Heavy Burden for Sports Stadium Subsidies.  Tax Foundation, Oct 3 2024

The texts and mailers have several factually incorrect items.  They state taxes will not increase, but that is a core part of Prop A.  They also state that the hotel, car rental, and venue taxes will pay for the arena.  The majority of the funding for the arena will come from the TIRZ through property and sales tax (see Where will the money come from, above).

Commentary: to believe the texts and mailers we are getting a $1 Billion arena for free.  No tax increase, no impact on Plano.  One billion dollars doesn't come out of thin air, it comes from taxes in various forms paid for by the residents of Plano.  

At this time the city doesn't have a plan to address traffic, it only has a limited traffic study and has stated they will increase the area being reviewed.  The Dallas North Tollway Authority (NTTA) has stated they have no plans for a traffic study and that there is no place for expansion of the tollway around the proposed arena site.

Commentary: it's clear to anyone who regularly uses the tollway that traffic will go from bad to worse.  For people who live or travel through the area it will be a disaster, but it will also push traffic to other parts of Plano as people work to avoid the gridlock around the arena.  This isn't just for the Stars games, but also for the additional hundreds of events planned a year for the arena.

The city is projecting approximately 120 events each year at the arena, but it will be competing for those events with other arenas.  DFW has numerous other arenas/venues including the existing American Airlines Center, the new Maverick's arena planned for the old Valley View mall location, and the Sunset Amphitheater, a $300 million open-air luxury music venue being built at 75 & 121.  It would also complete with AT&T Stadium for some events

Commentary:  Dallas was getting along perfectly fine with the arenas it has, but the city wants us to believe there is demand for for 2 more (Stars and Mavericks) similar arenas only miles away from each other.  It seems very similar to when Willow Bend was built with competition in all directions, and we ended up with a dead mall.  In addition the entire TIRZ is based on the idea that the arena and surrounding development will raise property value, but again there is a lot of competition: Legacy East, Legacy West, The Star in Frisco, and the new Haggard Farm development at Spring Creek and the DNT.  Plano's population growth is plateauing, how much more development can we support?