Boats for a new year-round ferry between St. Petersburg and Tampa are arriving in Tampa Bay this week. But before the service carries its first passenger, Pinellas transit officials are warning that a proposed overhaul of Florida’s property tax system could jeopardize the ferry, eliminate roughly 25 of the county’s 40 bus routes and cost as many as 120 agency jobs.
Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority officials laid out those potential consequences Tuesday during a meeting of the agency’s Transit Riders Advisory Committee. The preliminary scenario assumes voters approve Amendment 3, a November constitutional amendment that would substantially increase homestead property tax exemptions.
Chief of Planning and Community Affairs Darden Rice said the result would leave Pinellas County with transit service “dramatically insufficient for a county … with a population our size.”…