Do numbers back unequal bus service claim?
Commissioner Brian Blair says rural areas get fewer route miles for their taxes. Another official disagrees.
By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published August 2, 2005
Since getting elected last year, Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair has griped that suburban and rural taxpayers bear the brunt of bus costs while Tampa's urban residents get a break.
Now Blair says he has proof. Others aren't so sure.
An analysis presented during Monday's board meeting of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority validates his belief that Tampa residents benefit more from bus service, Blair said.
The study, which Blair requested two months ago, shows that while county residents living outside Tampa pay nearly 62 percent of the taxes collected by the agency, the outer ring areas they live in get back only 38 percent in services.
Meanwhile Tampa, where just 36 percent of HARTline's property taxes originate, gets 61 percent of overall bus service.
"I like parity for everyone," said Blair, who also sits on HARTline's board. "I'm not seeing it with these numbers. Either the county's contribution has to go down, or service to the county has to go up."
But Blair's conclusion is a serious misreading of the numbers he requested, said fellow county commissioner and HARTline board member Kathy Castor.
"You can't look at this analysis in a vacuum," Castor said. "The major employment centers are in Tampa. The downtown, the airport, the University of South Florida, the hospital. The commuters are coming into the city for the jobs."
HARTline included numbers from the county's planning commission that showed 50 percent of the jobs were in the city, even though Tampa has 400,000 fewer residents than the outlying county.
HARTline calculated the service it provided by counting miles its buses traveled on all routes. So some of the miles counted within Tampa were actually along routes where county residents ride to and from city jobs, Castor said.
"Also, the county's commuters benefit by everyone who gets on the bus," she said. "Think about how much worse Interstate 4 would be if these people were in their cars. And for many service employees, getting to their jobs is contingent upon riding transit."
Blair said HARTline's spending isn't fair, and the analysis presented Monday only confirms that, he said.
So in the coming weeks, Blair said he will consider how to remedy what he calls an inequity. He said one way to go is to put a measure on the 2006 ballot that, if approved, would eliminate the taxes that county residents pay HARTline, which is about $100 for a $200,000 home without a homestead exemption. That would be a $16-million hit for the agency.
Blair concedes that would be a drastic move, and he wants to study other options.
"I don't want to put HARTline out of business," he said.
Rapid bus transit, a system that uses new communications technology that triggers green lights for buses, could be one way to provide more efficient service to the booming suburbs in New Tampa and southern Hillsborough, Blair said.
Ray Miller, HARTline's executive director, said the agency is already taking steps to expand service into the county. On Sept. 7, the board will consider adding express bus routes to Brandon and Fishhawk Ranch in Lithia. Other routes to Sun City Center and New Tampa are also being considered.
"Most of our new service will be in the county," Miller told board members. "So these numbers will change a little bit."
--Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com