Advertisement

Hernando commission to discuss tax increases to pay for public transit, road improvements

 
Mollie Lauver, right, of Spring Hill follows driver Ruben Rivera, center, onto the Blue loop bus at a transfer station in Spring Hill. The county is debating how to pay for expanded bus service.
Mollie Lauver, right, of Spring Hill follows driver Ruben Rivera, center, onto the Blue loop bus at a transfer station in Spring Hill. The county is debating how to pay for expanded bus service.
Published May 24, 2015

BROOKSVILLE — Last summer, the Hernando County Commission approved an expansion of services offered by THE Bus, the county's public transit system. Now the time has come to figure out how to pay for it.

On Tuesday, the commission will consider several options to fund public transit, ongoing road repaving projects, and road maintenance and road improvement projects into the new year and beyond. Those options include increasing the portion of the property tax that is dedicated to the Transportation Trust Fund and increasing the local-option gasoline tax by up to 3 cents per gallon.

Commissioners will have to sift through a maze of possibilities because certain portions of the gas tax can only be used for specific expenses.

County staffers have boiled the decision down to one of two choices. The first would be to continue to pay for the county's portion of public transit through the Transportation Trust Fund, but increase the tax rate to pay for the new services. The other would be to dedicate what is known as "the ninth-cent local-option fuel tax" to pay for the match for public transit, and then to increase what is known as the "1- to 5-cent local-option fuel tax" by up to 3 cents to pay for road resurfacing and other road improvements.

Adding 2 cents would raise an additional $1.2 million per year in revenue for transportation. Adding 3 cents would take that to $1.8 million annually.

The county currently charges 2 cents of the 1- to 5-cent local-option tax, which cannot be used for routine maintenance, and also charges the ninth cent. In addition, the county charges all 6 cents of the "1- to 6-cent local option fuel tax." The ninth cent and the 1- to 6-cent gas tax have a wider range of uses, including public transit, road construction and maintenance.

Some combination of the two staff-recommended options is a possibility.

Beginning in October, the county plans to make three significant changes to THE Bus.

The biggest is adding a fourth route, one that will provide service along Spring Hill Drive and to Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport. The second is connecting the existing Purple Route to Pasco County Public Transportation along U.S 19. The third is operating all routes every 60 minutes; currently riders must wait 75 minutes between buses.

The changes would increase the number of buses from four to seven, increase the service area from 63 miles to 107 miles, increase the population served from 86,848 to 111,396 and increase the number of manufacturers and industries served from 21 to 78. Fourteen of the county's schools would have access to the enhanced service, compared with nine currently.

The changes will cost the county an additional $319,881 a year.

The discussion of increasing the gas tax comes only partially because of the improvements to services offered by THE Bus. When commissioners voted two weeks ago to continue to hold school and transportation impact fees in abeyance until March 1, 2016, and cut the fees in half, Commissioner Wayne Dukes raised the issue of increasing the gas tax to help pay for needed road projects.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

That will also be discussed on Tuesday.

The county had hoped to fund a list of major road improvements using the county's portion of the proposed Penny for Projects sales tax. But voters soundly defeated that referendum in November. Commissioners have discussed bringing a half-cent sales tax for roads up again during next year's general election, but have not yet formally decided to do that.

The county staff has offered the commission a list of potential major road projects that they could consider if they move forward with increasing the gas tax. It includes widening Barclay Avenue to four lanes from Elgin Boulevard to San Antonio Road for $8.2 million, widening Barclay to four lanes from San Antonio to Lucky Lane for $11.7 million, and building a frontage road on the south side of Cortez Boulevard at Mariner Boulevard and improving the intersection of Mariner and Cortez boulevards for $6.3 million.

Contact Barbara Behrendt at bbehrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.