The way Mike Bonfield talks about the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority Beach Trolley, you could almost imagine his plans for the first day of 2004.
He'll be behind the wheel of a trolley, driving across Pasadena Avenue to PSTA's 49th Street headquarters. When he arrives, he'll hop out of the underwater-theme bus and tack the keys to the front door with a note reading: "She's all yours."
That is, unless PSTA can make two affluent beach communities happy.
Last year, as Madeira Beach's city manager, Bonfield tried unsuccessfully to find a loophole in the PSTA legislation that would have allowed his city to pull out of the Pinellas County mass-transit system. Now the city manager of St. Pete Beach, Bonfield has told PSTA that his city and its neighbor, Treasure Island, don't want what PSTA is selling.
Unlike 19 of Pinellas County's 24 municipalities, St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island — as well as Kenneth City, Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore — have not held referendums asking citizens whether they would like to be part of a countywide transit system funded by property taxes. Although St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island never joined PSTA, they have received its services since December 2001, thanks to a federal grant that requires the two cities to cover PSTA's operational costs. St. Pete Beach pays $160,000 annually, and Treasure Island $80,000.
Since the grant expires Dec. 31, 2003, PSTA asked St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island to join the system under the same conditions other municipalities belong. But Bonfield and Treasure Island city manager Chuck Coward say the price is too high.
"If we join PSTA, we will then be charged through our millage, which will amount to almost $900,000," said Bonfield. That would raise St. Pete Beach's annual property taxes by 20 percent.
Treasure Island would have to pay $600,000 — nearly eight times more than the city currently pays for the service. "We're willing to pay, but only for what we get," said Coward.
Since Gulf Boulevard hosts many of Pinellas County's most valuable properties, the beach communities foot their share of the PSTA bill. The beaches "give more money than they receive from the system," said Bonfield.
According to Bonfield and Coward, affluent beach residents do not use the bus system as often as residents of other municipalities. Roger Sweeney, director of PSTA, could neither confirm nor deny that claim because his agency does not perform ridership studies.
PSTA collected $19.9-million in property taxes for the 2000 fiscal year. If St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island together paid the $1.5-million based on the millage rate, the two cities would fill almost one-tenth of PSTA's public trough.
But that's the price beach residents have to pay if they want to live in expensive homes, said Indian Rocks Beach City Manager Tom Brobeil. "Even though the vast majority of our citizens don't use the system, we have an obligation to support mass transit to help visitors, people who can't afford a car and people who are not able to drive a car," he said. "We have a responsibility to fund that kind of service."
But not every city is so generous. Belleair Beach, a small municipality with million-dollar waterfront homes, doesn't want PSTA buses anywhere near its manicured lawns. Neighboring Belleair Shore isn't flagging down buses, either.
If St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island leave the system, their departure will disrupt one of PSTA's most visible routes: the Beach Trolley. Jim Lawrence, an Indian Shores City Council member who also represents the beach communities on the 11-member PSTA board of directors, said the route would suffer if it didn't make stops at the south end of Gulf Boulevard.
"We'd like to see the (Beach Trolley) service continue, but as it is, it's not fair to citizens who have to pay the full millage rate," said Lawrence.
In May, Bonfield and Coward — whose respective city councils have aligned with them on the issue — each wrote letters to the PSTA board of directors, informing the body of their intentions to leave unless PSTA could offer a deal that would require them to pay only for services used.
If the two municipalities leave PSTA, they plan to join forces to create their own bus system. "If you combined the amount of money we'd pay PSTA, we'd have one heck of a transit system," said Bonfield. Before contracting with PSTA, Treasure Island operated its own bus system for $30,000 per year.
"I don't envy the city managers and elected officials in St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island," said Brobeil. "It would be difficult to explain the tax increase if they join PSTA."
While the Beach Trolley will continue to operate on the south end of Gulf Boulevard until the end of 2003, Bonfield and Coward maintain that their outlook will not change.
Will PSTA's? "I don't think the board is flexible on its original position: join or no trolley," said Lawrence.
Freelance writer Trevor Aaronson can be reached at trevoraaronson@yahoo.com.
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2002.