Commissioner Murman quoted in this StPetersBlog article on HART state funding:
By Mitch Perry on February 3, 2015
Showing once again that she’s determined to make a mark on the HART board, board member Kathleen Shanahan expressed frustrations today that she wasn’t aware of any financial requests that the transit agency had made of their local legislative delegation, a month before the 2015 session in Tallahassee.
“I feel like we’re going to miss this opportunity with this surplus in the budget,” Shanahan said, referring to the fact that the state has a one billion dollar budget surplus going into the session.
HART CEO Katharine Eagan said in fact she had met with several state legislators or their staffs recently about acquiring more state funding to help pay for a regional fare card. HART will begin installing smart card readers on all of its buses beginning this spring to use with the new fare cards.
Hillsborough County Commission Chair Sandy Murman chimed in, saying that the HART board is the only one she’s currently serving on where she has not received a copy of the legislative agenda. “You’ve got two former legislators (referring to herself and former state Senator and current County Commissioner Les Miller) that carry a lot of influence, and I think I would just like to see a hard copy of what we’re asking for.” She said that would be helpful when talking to delegation members.
Miller said that the board should have been talking to state lawmakers in December, not February.
HART’s lobbyist in Tallahassee is Justin Day with the Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners. Murman suggested that he address the board at their next meeting, which is scheduled to take a place a day before the legislative session commences.
