TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Stewart Seeks Support On Fee Hike For Transportation Disadvantaged

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: January 6, 2009

SEBRING - Barbara Stewart, chairwoman of the Highlands County commissioners, said she will ask her four fellow commissioners to endorse a proposed doubling of the $1.50 fee on license plate renewals that funds the Transportation Disadvantaged program.

"There is a large unmet need out there," Stewart said about the state program, which provides trips to more than 2,000 Highlands County residents who are at poverty-level income and have no transportation of their own.

About three out of four clients are elderly.

On average, Transportation Disadvantaged provides 2,250 trips per month in Highlands County. But that doesn't come close to meeting the requests, said Tim Banks, general manager of Veolia Transportation, the company which coordinates Transportation Disadvantaged services for the county.

"There's a demand way beyond what we currently are serving," Banks said.

"We have to deny trips every month," he added. "We're denying 1,000 trips per month, minimum, and it probably is more like 1,500 we have to deny."

Because of limited funding, Stewart said, Transportation Disadvantaged has had to restrict most trips to medical care.

In the past, she said, the program also took people to grocery stores and on a limited number of social trips, such as getting to a non-profit agency, a hairdresser or even a government office.

"Now, we're basically meeting just the needs for people to see physicians," she said. "We're doing minimal, if any, grocery shopping."

Stewart, who represents the county commission on the Highlands County Transportation Disadvantaged board, said the $1.50 surcharge on license plate renewals has not been increased since the Transportation Disadvantaged program was launched in 1989.

Raising the fee to $3 is a minimal increase on the license plate renewal, which would make a big difference to people in need, Stewart said.

"I would think the public would support it, because it's a small amount (that) provides a vital service," she said.

"I believe, definitely, that it needs to be increased to $3," she added. "And I'm hoping that the (county) commission will request the (county's) legislative delegation to support such a move in the Legislature.

"If it were increased from $1.50 to $3, the projections are that the current unmet needs that we have could be fulfilled."

Banks said providing Transportation Disadvantaged services is less costly to taxpayers in the long run, because it can make the difference between elderly people being able to stay in their own homes and going to an assisted living facility.

"I would imagine it costs the state $15,000 to help keep a person in their own home," he said. "And if you put them in an assisted living facility, that is going to cost the state about $60,000 a year.

Banks said a proposal to raise the surcharge on license plate renewals from $1.50 to $3 for Transportation Disadvantaged was raised in the Legislature last year but failed because it was attached to another bill.

"We're trying to get our own, separate bill this year," he said.

Banks said he's "extremely hopeful" the increased funding will be approved this year.

"It's incredibly necessary throughout the entire state, not just in Highlands County, because of the huge volume of unmet needs because we don't have the money," he said.

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT