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Bay Area Transit Agencies Seek To Increase Funding

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

Updated: 01/22/2008 11:57 pm

TAMPA - Two Bay area transit agencies are trying to come up with a list of improvements, including expanded bus service and local rail system, they can offer residents as an incentive to change the way local mass transit is funded.

Hillsborough Area Regional Transit and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority also want increased funding to build a regional network with several routes between the two counties.

Board members from both agencies met Tuesday to talk about ways to work together to improve transportation between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

Both groups are funded primarily by property taxes, but both would like to ask voters to approve an increase in the sales tax to pay for mass transit.

If voters approve the increase, the reduction in money from property taxes would be more than offset by the increase in sales tax, which proponents view as a more stable and fairer source of funding.

"That would spread the burden around," said R.B. Johnson, chairman of PSTA's board of directors.

"We've got to do something. We've got to put the decision to the voters so we're not sitting here in 2020 saying, 'Hey, why didn't we do something?'" Ricardo Roig, chairman of HART's board, said at the hourlong meeting at HART's executive offices.

HART already has a task force studying the funding issue.

Currently, about 65 percent of its $54 million operating budget comes from property taxes.

Shifting the funding burden to sales taxes and raising the 7-cent sales tax by a half-cent would generate $110 million yearly for transit in Hillsborough.

No decision has been made by either board to pursue that strategy.
Roig said both boards must come up with plans during the next six months. The plans must look not only at funding but also how the agencies will spend the sales tax money if voters approve the funding shift.

Among other ideas to induce voters' support, the agencies are considering light-rail service, bus rapid transit - a form of high-speed buses - and expanded bus service on existing lines.

Bringing the funding change question to voters likely will not happen until 2010 because the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority is developing a regional transit plan that won't be ready until next January.

The regional agency would then try to get the funding question on the ballot a year after that, in 2010.

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

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