Pinellas County Transit agency PSTA is heading towards insolvency. They used one-time COVID dollars to hand out large raises now baked into PSTA's budget. PSTA depleted almost $100M of COVID dollars over the last few years.
PSTA knew they were heading towards a fiscal cliff last year. The then governing PSTA board approved huge pay raises, implemented "free to the rider" SunRunner rides and did nothing to alleviate PSTA's fiscal hemorrhaging.
HART transit agency is a big mess and is going insolvent. The State needs to step in to investigate HART's financial mismanagement and do an independent audit of HART.
Just as we did in 2018, we will sound the warning again about the massive Bait and Switch Rail Tax do-over. The 2022 Rail Tax again massively overfunds HART - a transit agency with 2% ridership - who financially benefits the most from the tax hike.
Repost from Tampa Bay Guardian
Three months in to its fiscal year 2022, PSTA’s bus ridership year over year has declined another 20%, according to its own official reporting. PSTA, which is the taxpayer-funded Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, ended its fiscal year 2021 (FY2021) with ridership 46% lower than it was in FY2015.
The data thus shows that the ridership in FY2022 continues to plunge, and has not stabilized after the “COVID-related” plunge over the previous 18 months.
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| Pat Kemp, Kimberly Overman, Harry Cohen, Gwen Myers, Mariella Smith |
Before one cent of the unlawful All for Transportation Transit tax has been refunded, the Tampa-Centric Five push to put All for Transportation Transit 2.0 rail tax on the 2022 ballot.
Hillsborough County had scheduled 4 Transportation Town Hall meetings to begin on August 3rd. These Town Halls appear to now be delayed until October.
South County, one of the fastest growing areas of Hillsborough County that needs new roads, is ignored.
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| Gov DeSantis veto's TBARTA funding |
Taxpayers in Hillsborough County have not received a refund, in any way, shape or form, of any of the unlawfully collected $512 Million All for Transportation (AFT) transit tax monies. The fact that taxpayers are owed over a half a billion dollars of AFT 1.0 monies is not stopping the Hillsborough commissioners from pursuing another transit tax hike.
At the BOCC meeting on Wednesday, 5/5/2021, the Hillsborough County commissioners voted to begin activities for putting AFT 2.0 on the November 2022 ballot.
Take about 12 minutes to watch more from our interview with Dr. Jim Davison about transportation funding in Hillsborough County.
All for Transportation (AFT) was NOT the only transportation funding plan in town in 2018.
Transit ridership was declining across the country before the pandemic, The pandemic, together with innovation and technology has created paradigm shifts away from riding transit.
More telecommuters working from home mean less commuters are on the road or on transit. The "choice" transit rider has disappeared. People prefer the security of their individual vehicles to keep them safe and healthy.
Our local Tampa Bay transit expert Steve Polzin recently did a study about the impact of the pandemic on public transit for Reason stating:
Public transportation is uniquely sensitive to changes in the number of people working from home, changes in commuting patterns, and concerns over public health and safety.
COVID-19 has produced changes in the behavior of individuals, businesses, and governments.
Public transportation is among those sectors disrupted by COVID-19 and unlikely to return to pre-COVID-19 conditions.
Polzin's study found here states transit ridership decreased 65% from April 2020 to April 2021 during this past year of the COVID pandemic.
The All for Transportation (AFT) unlawful and egregious 2018 rail tax was thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court.
Sharon Calvert, co-founder of this blog and No Tax For Tracks, was a guest on Saturday's AM860 BrookeTalksAmerica podcast to talk about the illegal AFT transit tax and where to go from here. Take about 15 minutes to listen as Calvert emphasized the paradigm shifts away from traditional transit and costly rail, the need to fix our roads first and stop another wasteful AFT 2.0 rail tax boondoggle.
NoTaxForTracks (NTFT) issued a statement last week after the Florida Supreme Court threw out the unconstitutional and unlawful All for Transportation (AFT) transit tax hike in its entirety. NTFT requested that the AFT transit tax dollars illegally collected be given back to the residents of Hillsborough County.
About $502 Million has been collected since January 1, 2019. The Florida Supreme Court did not issue a remedy for disposition of those funds. Wednesday, the Hillsborough County Commission agreed with NTFT and voted 6-0 to refund the hundreds of millions of AFT dollars back to their constituents.
The commissioners did that because of what came next. Immediately after voting to refund the unlawfully taken AFT transit tax dollars, the county commissioners voted to start the process for putting AFT 2.0 on the 2022 ballot.
No Tax For Tracks Statement
On Florida Supreme Court Striking Down the All for Transportation Transit Sales Tax
Tampa, FL—February 26, 2021 NoTaxForTracks celebrates the Florida Supreme Court ruling yesterday that threw out the 1% All for Transportation (AFT) transit sales tax in its entirety as unconstitutional, illegal and unlawful.
NoTaxForTracks thanks Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White for filing his legal challenge against AFT in 2018. We are grateful to those who supported NoTaxForTracks and our effort to get the truth out about AFT’s deceptive tax hike referendum.
NoTaxForTracks Officer Sharon Calvert stated, “AFT was a 30 year $16 Billion rail tax that was a massive transfer of wealth from unincorporated Hillsborough to the City of Tampa. The wealthy downtown Tampa developers and special interests who funded AFT do not care about road needs in unincorporated Hillsborough.”
AFT had charter language that conflicted with Florida State law. NoTaxForTracks publicly warned about AFT’s potential legal issues and provided that warning to local media in 2018 who failed to report about them or inform the voting public.
With the AFT transit tax gone, this is a time for a Reset.
NoTaxForTracks Chair Karen Jaroch stated, “The AFT sales tax prohibited funding new road capacity and prioritized costly rail, that was already on the road to obsolescence, before the pandemic landed the knockout punch. This tax unlawfully took $300 for every man, woman and child in Hillsborough and the reset needs to include returning these funds back to them in the form of a rebate, which has the added benefit of providing a much-needed economic stimulus.”
NoTaxForTracks spokesperson Jim Davison stated “The Supreme Court decision helps our struggling small businesses in a time of the pandemic and provides a second chance to fix our roads and transportation issues in a more equitable manner.
NoTaxForTracks spokesperson Tom Gaitens stated “Tyler Hudson, AFT and the BOCC owe the residents an apology for their malfeasance and violations of the Public Trust. Their rush to place a tax on Hillsborough County residents to fund their rail transit dreams not only cost taxpayers $472 million and unnecessary legal expenses, but also lost time in improving, widening and building new roads to meet the ever increasing population. Common sense tells us FixOurRoadsFirst.com".
Hillsborough County has transportation needs that must be addressed and we will stay engaged on this issue.
