Money to fund and improve surface transportation routes in Pinellas County may ultimately fall into the laps of the voting public if plans to implement a new one-cent sales tax in lieu of present property tax funding becomes reality.
Public transportation is offered only by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority or PSTA, and with the possibility of railroad commuter lines edging toward reality there is a move afoot to improve bus services.
A millage rate of .5601 is attached to property taxes to partially pay for PSTA services.
Jerry Mullins, a Pinellas Park city councilman and member of the PSTA board of directors, said officials are entertaining several plans to bring in new money without adversely affecting property owners.
Some reports indicate that PSTA officials are leaning toward less than a penny sales tax increase to fund services, while keeping the present portion of property taxes that amounts to between $350 and $450 annually. But others are opposed to burdening residents with an additional tax in light of the present unstable economic climate.
“The fairest way to fund the PSTA would be to eliminate its share of property taxes and replace it with a one-cent sales tax increase,” Mullins said. “That would have to go before the voters as a referendum.”
The 2008/09 so-called PSTA “budget assumptions” indicate an approximate 26 percent increase in bus ridership. Passenger fares amounted to approximately $10.8 million in 2007-08 and an expected $13.7 million in 2008-09. PSTA also earns money from bus advertising, investments, beach trolley services paid for by St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, state reimbursement of fuel taxes, and state and federal grants.
The total operating revenues in 2007-08 was $56.2 million and $56.5 million this fiscal year. Operating expenses for the same periods were approximately the same and covered such things as labor, fuel, insurance and licensing costs.
No estimate has been officially worked up on the amount of money that could be raised with a penny sales tax increase. More than $116 million, however, is raised annually through the Penny for Pinellas sales tax program.
Mullins believes that at least that much and more could be raised for the PSTA considering that some of the burden would be placed on non-property owners and tourists.
“Everyone would pay their share,” Mullins said. “Everyone would pay proportionately, and that is the fairest way to handle it.”
Mullins said more money than ever will be required to fund not only present bus routes and services, but additional future ones as well. With Florida vying for millions of dollars in federal funds to build a high speed rail system connecting major cities, Mullins said it is imperative that the PSTA upgrade its services.
“It will be buses that provide transportation between future railroad stations and other destinations,” Mullins said. “You cannot have trains drop people off at railroad stations with no way for them to get to stores, their jobs or to other final destinations.”
President Barack Obama has already pledged up to $14 billion to create high-speed rail systems in various parts of the country. Florida officials are trying to get $2 billion of it.
Mullins said the PSTA will play a major role in making rail transportation work in Pinellas County because it must provide feeder routes from train stations to other locations.
The forerunner of the PSTA was launched as a street car line in the early 1900s as the St. Petersburg Municipal Transit System. By 1928 more than 4 million people were using the bus and trolley routes. In 1970 the Central Pinellas Transit Authority that served the Clearwater area and the St. Petersburg company combined forces. The two merged in 1980 to become PSTA.
The PSTA expanded over the years to include new terminals and routes. PSTA offers a variety of transportation services that are continuously amended and expanded. Today it operates 205 vehicles on 38 routes in Pinellas County and two express routes to downtown Tampa. Nearly 13 million people annually use PSTA facilities.
