Creative Loafing: HART board votes to reject possible merger with PSTA

Months after the suggestion first arrived via Clearwater-area GOP state Senator Jack Latvala, the boards of the region's two biggest transit agencies, HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Agency) and PSTA (Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority), met Monday afternoon at HART's offices in Ybor City to discuss the possibility of merging into one agency.

The members were remarkably unified — in opposing the idea.

HART members voted to send a letter to Senator Latvala saying they do not support such a bill, which Latvala had filed earlier on Monday. Pinellas transit members did not go quite as far, voting to delegate the matter to their Legislative Committee (with St. Pete City Council member Jeff Danner and Pinellas Commissioner Ken Welch dissenting, saying, "Let's not go to war with the Senator").

Board members from both agencies did agree that there were plenty of areas in which they could work together for savings and efficiencies, and said they would elect members of a new joint committee to look into that.

For the full article, visit Creative Loafing.