Janelle Irwin Taylor
A $1 million ask by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority will not be funded in the state’s 2015 budget.
The Legislature agreed on an $80 billion budget late Monday night, but it did not include proposed funding for a Bus Rapid Transit study for a Central Avenue route connecting downtown St. Petersburg and the beaches.
“PSTA representatives heard very positive feedback and 100 percent support from our Pinellas delegation, and our agency will keep working to find funding for BRT in the near future,” wrote PSTA spokeswoman Ashlie Handy.
The money would have funded a feasibility study for BRT lines running east and west along First Avenues North and South.
A current Central Avenue Beach Trolley line already runs a similar route. However, transit officials note the line takes too long to ride from start to finish. It connects downtown St. Petersburg to the Pinellas coastal towns from Pass-A-Grille north to Treasure Island.
Officials say that line is better used for short-haul trips between two points, but that riders would be more likely to ride the whole distance on a quicker BRT route.
The PSTA board is set to discuss the funding miss during a committee meeting Friday. There are several ideas likely to surface on other ways to fund a study. Those include asking the county or the Metropolitan Planning Organization to help pay for the study.
Hillsborough County has a similar line called Metro Rapid that runs a route north to south on Nebraska Avenue. While it’s considered “light” BRT, the route was funded in part by the county.
The funding left out of the state budget calls into question larger issues facing PSTA. Rumors have been long since surfacing about PSTA’s CEO Brad Miller’s viability as a leader.
Miller and his agency received a giant setback in November when they lost the Greenlight Pinellas referendum. It would have increased sales tax in the county from 7 to 8 percent and funded sweeping improvements to the county’s transit system, including BRT and even an eventual light rail route.
During that campaign Miller fell victim to bad publicity. The most notable came when a television station WTSP 10 News investigation by Mike Deeson found that Miller had inappropriately used grant funding from the Department of Homeland Security.
Miller later ordered the grant money to be returned to DHS.
The investigation shook the agency and Miller’s reputation. Now some are questioning whether his lack of favor with lawmakers may have been the deal breaker.
PSTA officials have not yet responded, but a turnaround plan has been in place since the weeks after the DHS situation. It includes goals such as better communication among leaders and staff.
