Trolley Budget Slashed, Downtown Route EliminatedBy Carl Wagenfohr
CLEARWATER - The July 25th decision of the Clearwater City Council to reduce the subsidy it would offer to the Jolley Trolley in fiscal 2007/08 could have been worse. In May of this year, the preliminary 2007/08 budget recommendation of Clearwater Budget Director Tina Wilson eliminated support for the Jolley Trolley, a non-profit that had received a contribution of $229-thousand from the city's general fund plus $50-thousand from the Downtown CRA this year. In the absence of a city subsidy next year, the Jolley Trolley would soon have met its demise. Although it generates more than $300-thousand of annual revenue from fares, advertising and charters, that income has not been enough to cover operating expenses. Bill Kirbas, Prsident of the Jolley Trolley, made an appeal for continued funding at the July 25th budget workshop. In contrast to the twenty individuals who spoke on behalf of Ruth Eckerd Hall just before him, Kirbas stood alone, and took only 4 minutes to make his pitch. "We exist for one reason - for tourism. If we didn't have the tourists, I would not be here today. We started this operation knowing that we would be a partner with the city in the business of tourism," Kirbas said, and went on to describe how the Trolley benefits what many agree is the city's number one industry. But while the Council reduced its contributions to outside agencies by only three or five percent, the Trolley, despite its role in tourism, was to take a much greater cut. At its July 16th budget worksession, the council had agreed to cut back its General Fund contribution from $229-thousand to $150-thousand, a 35-percent reduction. Councilmember John Doran explained why he had proposed the reduced subsidy; "What I said last week was rather than zero, which is where we were, I thought that we should allocate $150-thousand of General Fund to the Jolley Trolley. That's the starting point for our discussion now," he said. But Doran's starting point became a sticking point, as all of his colleagues were satisfied with $150-thousand except Councilmember George Cretekos, who argued unsuccessfully that the Trolley should not be singled out to suffer the brunt of the Councils budget cuts, and proposed increasing the subsidy to $175-thousand. Although they were not meeting as Clearwater's Community Redevelopment Agency, the Council also discussed the $50-thousand subsidy that Trolley has been receiving from the downtown CRA. "We have to decide if we believe that service from downtown Clearwater to Clearwater Beach is of importance," said Mayor Frank Hibbard, noting that Kirbas claimed that the Trolley could function with the $150-thousand subsidy if service was provided only on Clearwater Beach. Hibard suggested eliminating the Downtown route "for a couple of years", and his colleagues agreed. As a result of the Council's budget decisions, the Jolley Trolley will operate only two trolleys on a route that includes Sand Key, Island Estates and Clearwater Beach next year. After the Council's decision, Dwight Matheny, President of the Clearwater Downtown Partnership, said, "At this point in time, any cutting becomes regretful." But he also realized, "Right now we probably don't have the ridership that would make an impact on the Councilmembers." "What we're challenged with is building up downtown such a way that it demands a reinstitution of the service," Matheny said. Noting that what he saw as $800-million of improvements coming to downtown over the next three years would be bringing both residents and shopping attractions, Matheny was optimistic that the Council's decision to eliminate the downtown trolley route could be reversed next year. |