At its Wednesday meeting, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority Board of Directors approved the organization’s budget for the 2025 – 2026 fiscal year. It begins Oct. 1.
The operating budget will be $124,011,565. According to PSTA Chief Financial Officer Debbie Leous, the budget is balanced with a surplus of $162,520.
The organization’s capital budget of $68.6 million was also approved. Part of these funds will be used to build the new Clearwater station[1].
Additionally, PSTA has decreased its property tax rate to .7300 mills. This is the lowest rate to fund the organization’s services in 15 years.
For comparison, the rates for the 2024-2025 fiscal year were 0.7342 mills and 0.7500 mills in FY 2023-2024. A mill represents “$1 of tax paid for every $1,000 of taxable value on a property,” according to PSTA.
The approved budget will support multiple new projects, including the Connected Community Bus Network[2], which will launch Oct. 26. This initiative will help create a more “consistent” and “connected” bus system through route and schedule reorganization.
Additionally, the organization plans to launch its Spark service on the same day. It will connect St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College and the Skyway Marina District with the downtown area, as well as St. Pete Beach.
PSTA is also currently in the process of creating a new Tampa Bay Ferry service. Hubbard’s Marina[3] was selected to be its operator.
“The Board has really focused on not only cutting costs but taking a look at how we can increase and diversify our revenues,” Leous said at the Wednesday meeting.
PSTA Board of Directors member Max McCann commended the upcoming fiscal year’s budget at the meeting and explained his support.
“A lot of it has to do with my agreement with the messaging that we received in a lot of the public comments, which was, public transportation is an investment,” he said. “I don’t see this as a sunk cost.”
McCann, a St. Petersburg resident, shared his personal experience to illustrate the point.
He and his wife purposely found a home in an area that is “well served by public transit” so that they would not have to purchase two cars. Not only has this saved them a considerable amount of money with car ownership costs, but it has also allowed them to focus on other investments, such as building a rental unit in their backyard.
“I think that there are a lot of benefits, and to just focus on cold math doesn’t do justice to the value that rich public transit brings to our community.”
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Michael Connor[4] reports via St. Pete Catalyst[5]. Republished with permission.
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References
- ^ new Clearwater station (stpetecatalyst.com)
- ^ Connected Community Bus Network (stpetecatalyst.com)
- ^ Hubbard’s Marina (stpetecatalyst.com)
- ^ Michael Connor (stpetecatalyst.com)
- ^ St. Pete Catalyst (stpetecatalyst.com)