Five Pinellas cities and two other areas are exempt and lack PSTA bus service.
By MICHAEL SANDLER
Published February 7, 2004
CLEARWATER - A movement that would have expanded the local transit tax to all Pinellas County residents is off the table for the year, stopped in its tracks by Florida's Senate majority leader.
Three local boards had agreed that county taxpayers should vote on making the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority countywide.
That would have added seven exempt communities to the special tax rolls.
But because the PSTA was created by a special act of the Legislature, changes must first be approved in Tallahassee. Last month, Pinellas County commissioners requested state Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, file that bill during the legislative session, which begins March 2.
But state Sen. Dennis Jones, a Republican who lives in Treasure Island, one of the cities not now part of the PSTA taxing district, told his fellow Pinellas legislators he would not support the legislative bill this year that would allow the question on the ballot.
Jones said he objected to the request because it came at a special meeting after the delegation's two public hearings in Pinellas County.
The delegation requires unanimous consent for bills requested outside those public hearings.
Jones said the issue came up when several local mayors complained. He decided he couldn't support the bill.
"I felt they were trying to circumvent the rules that we have," Jones said. "Everybody else abides by them."
Jones said he didn't object to the proposal per se, but the manner in which it was proposed.
"I'm not for it and I'm not against it," Jones said. "We have rules, and they did not follow them. We'll address the issue next year."
A special committee of six elected officials had proposed the change, which would require all Pinellas property owners to pay the PSTA tax.
Currently, homeowners and businesses in most Pinellas cities and unincorporated communities pay the special PSTA tax, which operates buses in many parts of the county.
But residents in five cities and two unincorporated communities are exempt. Those communities - Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach, Kenneth City, Belleair Shore, Belleair Beach, Tierra Verde and unincorporated South Pasadena - lack bus service.
If the measure was approved, those communities 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.
The board of county commissioners, the PSTA and the Metropolitan Planning Organization all agreed last month that the bill should move forward, even though many disagreed over how the nearly $5-million in extra revenue would be spent or how the countywide transit authority would be governed.
Some want the money for new bus lines. Others would like to see it go toward plans for light rail. Those plans have yet to be formally approved, but are in the conceptual stages and require a local match for a federal grant Pinellas officials are seeking.
Commissioner Bob Stewart, who served on the special committee seeking the expansion of the PSTA, broke the news to his fellow county commissioners this week at a meeting.
"That sort of slows down, pardon the pun, a moving train," Stewart said.
