TAMPA, Fla. — State legislatures will review a plan Wednesday to dissolve the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority, or TBARTA, which the state created by statue in 2007.

TBARTA’s board voted to dissolve itself in January because of a lack of state funding.

“The legislature created this agency and it gave TBARTA a purpose,” said Executive Director David Green. “But there was never a funding mechanism incorporated into that statue that created TBARTA, and there-in lied the challenge for the past 16 years."

Green said Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Manatee counties all contributed financially to keep TARBTA alive, however a lack of funds from the state, specifically for the past five years, led to TARBTA’s decision to dissolve.

The counties that contributed funds will be reimbursed with whatever is left in TBARTA’s account at the end of the year.

The total is estimated at around $200,000.

The Tampa Bay region is in the middle of explosive growth, and long-term growth planning shows the Tampa area could grow by an additional three million people in the next two decades.

Estimates anticipate seven million people living in the Tampa Bay region by 2050.

Green said some kind of regional transit planning needs to continue despite TARBTA dissolving, however the path forward is unclear.

He says FDOT could take over, or local counties could choose to work together.

“Is that the best solution? I don't know,” he said. “Do they want to do it? I don't know. That's why I say it's yet to be determined.  Is there a better solution the counties could come up with?  

“We will just have to see.”