Tax-reducing options include a takeover of the causeway to Treasure Island or a rejection of $50-million in federal funds and a return of the tolls.
By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published March 21, 2004
TREASURE ISLAND - Commissioners learned Friday that without tolls the estimated annual maintenance costs for the new bridge and causeway could force a nearly 1-mill hike in property taxes.
City Manager Chuck Coward said a tax increase is two or three years away. One mill is $100 of tax for every $100,000 of assessed value.
City officials and consultants told commissioners that the tax could be reduced by about half if two things happen:
First, the state would have to agree to take ownership and maintenance responsibility for the three bridges on the causeway.
Second, the city of St. Petersburg similarly would have to assume ownership and maintenance of the east portion of the causeway (from Park Street to the main bridge).
The likelihood of either happening is uncertain. Florida Department of Transportation officials have told the city they "have no interest in taking over the bridge," according to the city's lobbyist, Louis Rotundo.
Coward has talked informally with St. Petersburg officials and urged his commissioners to help in the major lobbying effort he says is necessary to convince the larger city it needs to own the road connecting causeway residents (who are now part of St. Petersburg) to the mainland.
The only other choice is to turn down the $50-million in federal funds now included in Congress' Omnibus spending bill, go it alone in financing replacement of the deteriorating causeway bridges, and raise tolls to pay for construction and ongoing maintenance costs.
U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, chairman of the appropriations committee, put the money in the federal spending bill only on the city's guarantee that people using the bridge would no longer be charged a toll.
"Who would turn down $50-million?" Coward said when asked how likely that might happen.
There is also the problem of time. Because of severe cracks and other deterioration, the 65-year-old bridge is already restricted to vehicles no heavier than 4 tons. If further deterioration forced a 3-ton limit, the bridge would have to be completely closed. No one is predicting exactly how much longer the bridge will last.
Construction is scheduled to start next year and be completed by 2007.
