Pinellas bus services are facing cuts — but how deep will they be?

The Route 90 bus, with stops next to the Don CeSar and the Tradewinds Island Resorts, takes dozens of people every day from St. Petersburg’s Grand Central Station to their jobs in St. Pete Beach, according to the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.

In the middle of Pinellas County, Route 58 connects the Gateway Mall in the Carillon area to St. Petersburg College in Seminole. And near Dunedin, Route 813 runs from Countryside Mall to the Palm Harbor Walmart, with a stop midway outside the Palm Lake Village Apartments, a community of low-income seniors.

Those routes’ ridership numbers rank among the lowest of the Transit Authority’s offerings. And all of them could be on the chopping block as the agency looks to make cuts to balance its budget for the next year.

On Wednesday, the agency’s board of directors approved a list of a dozen possible cuts that, combined, would save the agency more than $3 million and reduce its ridership by more than 300,000 rides per year, about 4% of its total. It includes the potential elimination of routes 90, 58 and 813, as well as three other routes; reduced service on several other routes; and ending service on all routes at 10 p.m.

Wednesday’s vote was not a final decision. It instead allows the proposed cuts to move forward to a public hearing next month before board members make a decision. Nor does the board have to make all of the proposed cuts to balance the budget: If it doesn’t reduce the tax rate, it needs to make about $1.5 million in cuts, or about half of what’s suggested.

The motion to accept the list passed 12-1, with several board members emphasizing that they want to avoid eliminating routes if possible.

“It’s not because I want these service reductions,” said St. Petersburg City Council member Gina Driscoll, the board’s chairperson. “I want us to keep talking about it and find a better way.”

The lone no vote came from Jeff Gow, a Dunedin city commissioner, who said he saw route eliminations as a step in the wrong direction and couldn’t abide leaving riders in the lurch. He pointed to the older residents in his city who rely on the 813 bus.

“For these seniors that need the ridership, it’s not a want, it’s a need,” he said.

Among the main budgetary challenges facing the agency: federal pandemic funding that boosted its revenue each of the past few years — peaking at nearly $30 million in 2021 — has dwindled, to about $7.4 million in the upcoming year’s budget.

The agency could get substantial savings from some of the other options. Cutting late-night hours on the dozen routes after 10 p.m. would save $900,000 a year, said the agency’s planning director, Heather Sobush. The Transit Authority pays for trash collection at its stops, and passing a third of that work off to cities would save about $170,000, though Driscoll emphasized that cities need to be brought into the fold on that prospect.

How deep the agency has to cut will depend on where it sets its tax rate. This year’s millage is 0.75, the maximum allowed by state law, meaning property owners paid 75 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. On Wednesday, the board voted to set its millage at the same level, though it could approve a lower rate before the budget is finalized.

That measure passed with a 10-2 vote, with opposition from county commissioners Brian Scott and Chris Latvala. Scott, who has also pushed for lower taxes at the county level, said the agency should consider all cuts that would allow for a full rollback rate, meaning property owners wouldn’t face an increase in the portion of their tax bill that pays for transit.

Keeping the tax rate the same will cost the average homeowner about $14.50 more next year, said Nick Sagan, the agency’s budget manager.

“To me, that’s dinner,” he said. “But for the person who relies on these services to get to work to afford dinner, (the transit funding is) a lifeline.”

To implement a full rollback, according to agency staff, the Transit Authority would have to eliminate 23 routes, lay off 100 employees and withhold pay raises for non-union employees. If the agency makes all the cuts on the list approved Wednesday, it could afford a partial rollback, to about 0.72 mills.

“Nobody likes laying off employees, but this is not a jobs program,” said Scott, who owns a charter bus company. He added that the Transit Authority should see whether contracting with a private company for some bus services would save money.

“We’re at a point where we’ve got to make some darn tough decisions,” he said, “and if we don’t do it, we’re just kicking the can down the road.”