A proposed water taxi is making waves at city halls on Anna Maria Island.
Manatee County administrator Scott Hopes and Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Elliot Falcione have said $1 million-plus in funding for the taxi launch would come from three sources — Coquina Beach Market revenues, beach concession surplus funds and the county tourist development tax.
But there are issues with the funding sources.
First, the Coquina Beach Market has yet to launch and thus produces no revenue.
The market was scheduled to open under county direction in November but the opening has been delayed due to a lack of action by the county board of commissioners.
As for the concession surplus funds, the island cities have designs on the more than $300,000 for city projects:
- Anna Maria is seeking funding for an engineering solution to the frequent dredging of the Lake LaVista channel.
- Holmes Beach is seeking funding to provide lighting and repairs for trolley shelters.
- Bradenton Beach is seeking funding for improvements to beach and bay access points, including signage, trash containers, benches and bike racks.
“I would hope that the county wouldn’t try to dip into the surplus concession funds,” Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie told The Islander Oct 11. “The surplus concession funds program has been a great source of revenue to help do projects that enhance the tourism trade and our visitor and resident experience.”
However, the county commission has control over the surplus funds and can deny funds to the cities in favor of another project, such as the water taxi.
Falcione recently told The Islander the county is still considering using surplus money for the taxi service.
“It’s definitely an option that the county administrator is considering,” he said.
A 2014 resolution set forth the guidelines for allocating the surplus money and, Falcione noted, “That resolution says that the county has the ability to use those monies that they deem best fit for the community.”
He added, “At the end of the day, I know in my heart that the three island cities have endorsed and asked for the county’s help to enhance multimodal transportation to the island. And, if beach concession proceeds can be used for that, then that is by far an appropriate source of money for that purpose and the island cities should be happy about it.”
Well surprise, surprise, pull money from tourist development funds and those funds aren’t available for the cities to use. Really, a water taxi sounds really great when they go to their government conferences, I’m sure the lesser governments will say ooh ahhh and be totally impressed. The fly in the ointment is paying for it, other than bouncing over wakes it provides no greater ability to move people than the bus system which is not self-supportive nor near capacity. Truthfully if it was a money maker it really wouldn’t require government, and if trying to compete with the sightseeing vessels we will see that individuals in their own enterprise always do it better. The county advertising guy is the last person who should be touted as having any authority in this.