Here's $0, now get working

Even without a budget, a new transportation agency is excited to start its planning.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD
Published June 29, 2007

With a stroke of the governor's pen Thursday, the Tampa Bay region got a new transportation authority that could one day build a network of toll roads, rail lines and express buses to move people around seven counties.

The only problem: Last month, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed $1-million in startup money for the fledgling agency.

The bottom line: A government body that will be handed the task of creating a region-spanning transportation plan will have no budget and no staff of its own, at least in its first year.

That's a tall order.

"It's going to be a lot of work to get this entity going. We've been given a breath of life, we've just got to get the heart beating," said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who sponsored the bill Crist signed into law Thursday.

The agency's backers hope that it will somehow, someday be a vehicle for the Tampa Bay area to create light rail lines for commuters.

"I envision a rail system between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties as the first step," said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who will be on the authority's board. "But all counties in the region need to see how they will eventually be a part of the rail system. This authority will force that kind of planning to take place -- a true regional plan."

The new agency is called TBARTA, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. It encompasses Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.

Its 15-member board will have seven county commissioners, one from each county; mayors or mayoral designees from St. Petersburg and Tampa; a third mayor's seat, to flip between Bradenton and Sarasota every two years; one representative from all these counties' transportation planning agencies; and four governor's appointees from the business sector.

The governor also will name the group's first chairman.

The first order of business: Meetings. Lots of meetings. The law creating TBARTA says it must meet within 60 days, and it will have two years to decide on a master plan. Board members are likely to start with the existing transportation plans that each county has developed on its own.

"I would think the first exercise would be to bring all the regional plans that are floating around out there into one room and vet them," Galvano said.

Elected officials and transportation planners from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Manatee counties have already started doing that in an informal group spearheaded by Pinellas County Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan.

Duncan thinks the bigger, seven-county transportation authority is badly needed, but its challenge will be finding a way to pay for mass transit projects.

"I think the question is going to become how effective can they be at getting something accomplished," Duncan said. "Funding is going to be the big issue there."

TBARTA can't levy taxes. It can partner with private companies, accept federal and state grants, and sell revenue bonds to build money-generating projects like toll roads.

Duncan said other possibilities for raising money include privatizing existing toll roads or asking area voters to approve a sales tax solely for transit.

The $1-million in startup money that Crist vetoed was intended to pay for a staff and an office.

Instead, the authority will be relying on staffers from the state Department of Transportation, which already is studying the region's mass transit needs.

"Unfortunately, funding for the Authority's administrative costs is not fully addressed," Crist said in a letter accompanying his signing of the bill. He said he vetoed the use of State Transportation Trust Fund dollars for TBARTA because that money should go to constructing transportation systems, not for administration.

Other regional authorities in Florida typically rely on local counties and cities for funding. But those governments are facing budget crunches of their own. Lawmakers say they'll seek state funding again next year.

The creation of the transportation authority was hailed as a victory by the Tampa Bay Partnership, an economic development group that pushed hard for it for two years.

"TBARTA will be crucial for the future economic well-being of our region," said University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft, the partnership's chairwoman.

The new agency could eventually get involved in anything from commuter ferries to rapid-transit buses, though some critics wonder if it will simply build a toll road or two.

"I'm not saying roads won't be a part of it," Galvano said. "But too much work went into this entity to just have it build a road somewhere and call it a day."

Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3435.

[Last modified June 29, 2007, 02:53:10]