Let's be blunt: As summer officially begins, there's not a whole lot of interest in the 2014 Florida elections, with the exception of political junkies contemplating what Democrat will face off against Rick Scott.
So it was no surprise that Thursday's Suncoast Tiger Bay discussion about the 2014 Pinellas transit tax, held at the St. Petersburg Yacht club, wasn't filled to capacity. But if you believe that the plan to fund a light rail system in Pinellas County is worthy, then it's a good thing there's even this much interest in it this early in the game.
Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) head Brad Miller and St. Pete City Councilman Jeff Danner were the featured speakers. At the beginning of his brief speech, Danner joked that he welcomed the opportunity to talk transit because it meant for the next 45 minutes he wouldn't be talking about the Lens.
"It has to be viewed about helping our community or else people will not vote for it," Miller said in his opening statement, adding that's essentially the selling point for the one-cent transit tax, not the fact that Tampa Bay is the biggest metropolitan area in the country that doesn't have a mass transit system. Such an argument was used in Hillsborough County three years ago, and didn't seem to convert the skeptical.
Miller even thanked Tampa and Hillsborough County, saying that without the lessons learned from the failure of that initiative, the push for Pinellas' plan would be in much worse shape.
"We're starting much earlier," he said. His plan is 15 months away, while Hillsborough County Commissioners didn't approve the ballot initiative for their referendum until five months before the vote.
Last year PSTA funded $300,000 to the Tampa-based public relations firm Tucker/Hall to create an education campaign that has irked some voters. Out of that has come a website called Greenlight Pinellas. Last week, Miller requested an additional $95,000 for Tucker/Hall (several of the firm's staff members attended today's meeting).
Although it's not remembered by many folks, advocates for Hillsborough's plan talked about how the money expected to be generated by their taxes wasn't all about trains, but buses and road improvements as well. Likewise, Miller talked repeatedly about how PSTA's bus system would be transformed if the measure is successful.
"Buses will always carry a majority of the riders and I know that under this initiative, for the first time here in Pinellas County, buses will become the choice of travel for people who have cars who live here," he said. (PSTA external affairs officer Bob Lasher said that almost half of the total funding from the tax would go to buses.)
Councilman Danner acknowledged that the rail plan is an expensive project, but he compared it favorably to the current Florida Department of Transportation's spending on U.S. 19, which he said for the past decade has cost state taxpayers $46 a mile.
"We can't pave our way out of this with our road system. We really have to give people options," he said.
Danner admitted that the transit tax campaign will be intense. With 24 different cities inside the county, "we've really gotta build a consensus."
The proposed plan as of now includes building 24 miles of light rail from Clearwater to downtown St. Petersburg, but there are plenty of specifics to fill in, which Danner said he hopes will happen by the end of this year.
As far as the Q-and-A period at the discussion, little blood was drawn. Interestingly however, Danner said he had a conversation with one of the Tampa Bay Rays "front-office people," who allegedly told him that "if we had mass transit, we wouldn't be having the stadium discussion today."
Democratic political consultant Greg Wilson asked Miller if politically, it would make more sense to emphasize bus rapid transit (BRT) instead of a more controversial and expensive train system. Miller said that was intensely debated amongst Pinellas County Commissioners for the past few years but transportation doesn't really work like that.
"It's not like a baby rose up to become a train," Miller deadpanned, though he seemed sincere in saying it.
He said BRT is part of the plan along Central Avenue in St. Pete and U.S. 19, and though it would create ridership, it wouldn't generate economic development. "A fixed guideway system like rail will change the development in St. Petersburg and along the line dramatically," he said.
Miller said that the new transit plan would allow for easier access into Hillsborough County, and he agreed with Senator Jack Latvala that it would be better if Pinellas and Hillsborough's respective transit agencies worked together (most members with Hillsborough's transit agency, HART, have expressed strong opposition to any such merger).