Displaying items by tag: Budget cutbacks

The Jolley Trolley does its rounds on Clearwater Beach.Clearwater Beach, FL -- The fate of the Jolley Trolley could be in limbo, but newly-named Executive Director of the service, Bob Longenecker, has dedicated himself to saving Clearwater Beach’s familiar yellow and red trademark.

The city of Clearwater is in the tough position this year of having to make budget cuts, meaning the Jolley Trolley is likely to lose some or all of its funding. Longenecker says that the trolley could possibly take up to a $20,000 budget cut, however if the trolley loses all of its funding, it is likely to go under. “If the city funding gets cut too dramatically, too fast, we don’t see how we can be viable,” Longenecker says. Currently, for every dollar of revenue the trolley receives, $0.30 comes from city funding. The rest comes from fares, charters and advertising. Longenecker predicts that in the future, the trolley will require less subsidized funding from the city, but it is not there yet at the moment. 

Published in Pinellas County