Virtually every month, officials at HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit) release information about increases in ridership on their buses compared to the same time a year earlier. That's in sync with a report released earlier this month showing that public transportation ridership nationally has risen to its largest level since the late 1950s. And with gasoline prices continuing to rise before spring officially hits, those ridership numbers will likely continue to rise.
But while those numbers delight HART staffers, another set of numbers alarms them. That would be their fiscal condition moving into the coming years.
On Monday morning, HART board members agreed to host a workshop in May to examine what new revenue sources are available to continue (if not improve) basic bus service. That would include the possibility of swapping out the way the agency is currently funded — through property taxes — for a sales tax instead.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2012.