Pinellas County's proposed budget includes millage rollback, fuel tax hike | Pinellas County tbnweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tbnweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BELLEAIR â Money for local sidewalk repair and other improvements has increasingly become harder to come by, so the Belleair Town Commission has decided to join other municipalities to do something about it.
The Town Commission, which hopes to continue improving crosswalks and other infrastructure, voted 5-0 to join other towns in asking the Pinellas County Commission to maintain the way it disburses the Local Option Fuel Tax, which helps pay for town improvements.
The county keeps 60% and apportions the rest to the countyâs municipalities. Belleair, which receives .23% of the tax from the county, also backs the countyâs plan to raise the fuel tax.
LARGO â Pinellas Countyâs transportation trust fund is quickly running out of money.
The special revenue fund pays for such things as road and right-of-way maintenance, including patching and mowing. It pays for bridge maintenance and operation; traffic signal operation; sidewalk repair and construction; maintenance of ditches, culverts and more.
Money for the fund comes mostly from local gas taxes. Pinellas levies seven cents of the possible 12 cents of Local Option Fuel Tax (LOFT) in addition to the 3 cents of state fuel tax for local use, according to a report from Forward Pinellas.
The county levies a â9th centâ gas tax, which is 1 cent devoted to funding the intelligent transportation system. Revenue from the remaining 6 cents is split with the municipalities sharing 40% of the revenue and the county receiving 60%.