Communities with no bus service shouldn't have to pay for it, some leaders say.
By MICHAEL SANDLER and JAN WESNER CHILDS
Published January 11, 2004
CLEARWATER - At first blush Friday, the leaders of four municipalities said that taxation without bus service seems unfair.
Pinellas County commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to ask state Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, to help clear the way in Tallahassee for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to become a countywide transit authority.
If approved in a countywide referendum, the change would require all Pinellas property owners to pay the PSTA tax. That vote could take place as soon as November.
But residents in five cities and two unincorporated communities are exempt from the tax. Those communities - Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach, Kenneth City, Belleair Shore, Belleair Beach, Tierra Verde and unincorporated South Pasadena - also are without bus service.
If approved, they would join others who pay $0.6319 per $1,000 of assessed, taxable property value, or $63.19 a year on a home that is assessed at $125,000 and has a $25,000 homestead exemption.
Several public officials reached Friday said they had few details on the proposal and aren't sure if they'll mount official protests, but they don't want their residents to pay any more taxes, especially for something they don't use.
"We are very much opposed to it," said Belleair Shore Mayor John Robertson. "We think this is a lousy way to raise money for some cockamamie rail train that would completely skirt the beaches."
Robertson said the tax would cost the 55 property owners of Belleair Shore, a tiny beach community where houses start at about $1-million, a total of $70,000.
Kenneth City Mayor William B. Smith said there is one bus stop in his town, and few people use it. "I heard they were trying to shove it down everybody's throat," Smith said. "I don't like it because we don't have any need for it."
Treasure Island City Manager Chuck Coward said he hadn't yet heard about the idea, but that "it wouldn't seem like something that Treasure Island would favor."
St. Pete Beach Mayor Ward Friszolowski said his city likely will file some sort of protest. "We don't want to burden our taxpayers with the ad valorem tax of the PSTA," Friszolowski said. He said the St. Pete Beach City Commission might discuss the issue at its next meeting.
Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach contract with the county for the Suncoast Trolley that runs along Gulf Boulevard and connects with St. Petersburg.
Roni Hummelt, administrator of the Tierra Verde Community Association, said she had not "heard anything yet from any of the residents here and I don't think they're aware of it. But I can say with confidence that I don't think they'd be in favor of it."
At the moment, homeowners and businesses in most Pinellas cities and unincorporated communities pay the special PSTA tax, which operates buses in many parts of the county.
Expanding the tax and bus service area could bring in more than $5-million in annual revenue, said county Commissioner Bob Stewart, one of six elected officials on a special committee proposing the expansion.
The committee, which is made up of three county commissioners and three city officials, has yet to agree on how to spend the extra money, nor are they certain who would serve on the expanded transit board.
Some favor using it to expand bus service. Others would like to see it applied toward a light rail project, which has yet to be approved and is without an identified source of funding.
