1-cent transit tax not an option

Hernando Today

BROOKSVILLE - Last week, county commissioners pretty much squashed a suggestion from their county administrator to raise the county gas tax up to 2 cents to help fund road improvements.

It looks as if another tax, one that would have allowed Hernando and Citrus counties to petition the state Legislature to implement a 1-cent Charter County Transit surtax, is also doomed.

The matter was broached at the January meeting of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) after it was learned Pasco County is requesting to change legislation to allow the issue to go to referendum.

When TBARTA representatives asked their northern representatives in Hernando and Citrus counties if they were amenable to a similar legislative petition to get a transit tax on the ballot, the response was resoundingly negative.

"This process needs to take place a step at a time," Hernando's TBARTA representative Dave Russell said Thursday. "An additional tax? We're nowhere near the need for a transit tax here in Hernando County for the foreseeable future."

Citrus County Commissioner John Thrumston, echoed Russell's objections to appealing to the Legislature with the hopes of getting a transit tax on the ballot for his residents.

Thrumston told Hernando Today on Thursday that commissioners there "don't want to raise taxes right now."

"Everyone is struggling," he said. "The economy is bad. Everybody's out of work, and we have an almost 12 percent unemployment rate."

Thrumston said the idea has likely "died on the vine."

TBARTA is currently developing a transportation master plan for the seven-county West Central Florida region, including Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.

The agency is considering what type of transit mode would be best for each of the transportation corridors in the region.

Of the seven counties in TBARTA, only three counties - Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota - currently have the ability to pass the transit tax because they are charter members.

The other counties, including Hernando and Citrus, would have to petition the Legislature to allow noncharter counties that are members of regional transportation authorities to have the ability to levy the tax if they choose.