Opinion
Numbers game
TBO.com
Published: November 22, 2012
It appears as if the suggestion from Tallahassee to merge the public transit systems of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties is a classic glass half empty, glass half full situation. Whether there is enough of a sound financial basis for combining the operations of the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and Hillsborough Area Rapid Transit seems to hinge on outlook rather than hard facts.Published: November 22, 2012
A study of the merger idea, which the Legislature mandated earlier this year at the urging of state Sen. Jack Latvala, suggested it would cost about $1.1 million to create a formal PSTA-HART partnership and about $1.9 million for a complete merger. Consolidating the two bus systems' senior staff could save around $2.4 million a year, the McCollom Management Consulting study estimates.
These numbers, however, don't seem to have impressed the members of the PSTA and HART boards. One HART board member, Steven Polzin, a transportation professor at the University of South Florida, said that after a transit system merger in Virginia management salaries went up significantly, not down.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, another HART board member, is concerned rising costs may produce "Armageddon."
We're not sure about the money aspect. Our concern is its backers hope a merger would make a light-rail system link Hillsborough and southern Pinellas more likely. If that's the case, count us among the merger skeptics.