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HART Raises Bus Fares, Backs Property Tax Hike

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By RICH SHOPES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 5, 2008

TAMPA - Riding a bus is going to get more expensive, and even nonriders might soon pay more to support Hillsborough County's transit agency.

The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit board agreed Monday 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. The tax increase must survive two public hearings and be passed by a super-majority of the board before becoming reality.

Citing higher costs for gas and increased ridership, the HART board unanimously agreed to raise bus fares but split 5-4 on increasing the property tax rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. The current rate is 45 cents.

Under the higher rate, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay HART $50 yearly in property taxes, an increase of $5.05. A house assessed at $250,000 with the exemption would pay $100, or $10.10 more than now.

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

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's also a HART board member.

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

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

Based on figures from the state and county, HART would have received a 4 percent increase in next year's tax rate, bringing the rate to about 47 cents per $1,000 of property value.

That would have given the agency $2.5 million, instead of $5 million, to pay for the alternative transit analysis and some service improvements.

"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 rate.

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

The vote came after HART approved a 25-cent increase in cash fares, bringing the one-way fare to $1.75, and a $10 increase in monthly transit passes.

Currently, the monthly local pass is $50 and the express pass is $80.

The fare adjustment, which will raise $736,000 for HART next fiscal year, is scheduled to take effect Nov. 2.

Some scheduling changes were approved as well. Go to HART's Web site, www.gohart.org, for information about the changes.

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

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