A year ago, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman requested and received $350,000 from the local governments of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pinellas County and his own City Council to help fund the Cross-Bay Ferry public-private pilot project that ends Sunday.
While those local governments won’t get close to that money back — they were never expected to — but final totals could end up bringing as much as $30,000 back to those local governments.
Speaking before the Tampa City Council today for twenty minutes Thursday, Kriseman made a similar presentation as he did last week before the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners. But the reaction was a little rockier.
“I’m getting 10 percent of the original investment, if all the numbers are correct,” said Councilman Charlie Miranda. “So I lose 90 percent of my money, of the citizen’s money that I have to deal with.”
“I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to vote for private enterprise,” Miranda continued, alluding to the fact that the ferry is operated by HMS Ferries, Inc.
Councilman Frank Reddick‘s response was even harsher.
Reddick blasted the mayor for failing to market the ferry to the black community, and said the $5 fare was still too expensive (originally, it was $10).
“I always believe that government cannot pay the costs for all of these services,” said Reddick, comparing the city’s funding of a private ferry to the GOP-led state Legislature spending $200 million on charter schools. “That bothers me.”
Kriseman said the ferry was never supposed to be a solution to the region’s transit problems, but as a “tool” to provide an alternative way of getting people to connect across Tampa Bay. He didn’t intend to come back in a year to request another $350,000 from the council.
Answering Reddick’s criticism about marketing, the mayor said that with only a $75,000 marketing budget, options were limited.
Other council members embraced the concept.
“I don’t expect when we make an investment like this that it is going to pay for itself,” said Councilman Harry Cohen. “What I expect is that it’s going to give us — as you did today — some reliable markers that we can look at to see what we can expect in terms of ridership and revenue in the future.”
Cohen says that he could see how the Cross-Bay Ferry could be an avenue for the much-delayed Hillsborough County proposed public-private partnership ferry plan to take passengers from South County to MacDill Air Force Base to pay for itself. The success of the Cross-Bay Ferry has re-energized Hillsborough commissioners into seeing that project reach fruition, though it still has a long way to go.
“When you start a business, you don’t get a return on day one, or a few months later,” said Councilman Guido Maniscalco, who said he wished the ferry service could continue beyond this Sunday’s cutoff date, since the attendance has grown month-over-month.
Council members Yolie Capin and Luis Viera also spoke out in s support of Kriseman and the ferry.
As of the end of March, more than 31,000 people had ridden on the ferry, with organizers hoping the total number could hit 40,000 before the project’s completion in four days.
