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HART Approves Fare Increase, Property Tax Boost

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By RICH SHOPES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 4, 2008

TAMPA - Riding a bus will get more expensive.

Hillsborough County's transit agency this morning voted to raise fares across the board and gave tentative backing to a property tax increase to pay for more buses and a long-range transit study.

Citing higher costs for gasoline and increased ridership, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit's board voted unanimously to raise bus fares but split 5-4 on increasing the property tax rate to 0.5 from the current 0.4495 rate.

Final passage of the tax rate change can't occur until two public hearings in September and two-thirds of the board's 12 members vote to back it.

Under the higher rate, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay $5.05 more in property taxes. A house assessed at $250,000 with the exemption would pay $10.10 more.

The increase would give HART $5 million to add buses to existing routes and at night and on weekends and to hire five employees, including a finance budget analyst and two workers for the planning department.

One of those planners would oversee the creation of a speedy new bus service called Bus Rapid Transit that would run on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and on Nebraska, Fletcher and Hillsborough avenues.

About $500,000 would pay for "an alternative analysis," a transit study that is the first step toward creating a light-rail plan.

Although board members agreed mass transit should be expanded, they disagreed on whether to support an increase in the tax rate.

"It doesn't meet the spirit of Amendment 1," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who also is a HART board member.

Sharpe voted against the 0.5 tax rate in favor of a smaller increase.

Passed by voters in January, Amendment 1 increased the homestead and other exemptions, reducing property tax revenue for local governments.

Based on figures from the state and county, HART would have received a 4 percent increase in next year's tax rate, or 0.4682.

That would have given the agency $2.5 million, instead of $5 million, to pay for the alternative analysis and some service improvements but not all of them.

"I think this could potentially injure us as we move forward to create light rail," Sharpe said. "Voters will remember this."

Board member Steve Polzin, who supported the higher rate, said it was a small price to pay. "We're asking a little bit from folks."

Board Chairman Ron Govin, a Temple Terrace councilman, also supported the 0.5 rate.

"We need it and need it desperately," he said.

The vote came after HART approved a 25-cent increase in one-way cash fares and a $10 increase in monthly transit passes. The fare adjustment goes into effect in November.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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