SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Seminole County leaders are questioning proposed LYNX costs after the county replaced most of its fixed bus routes earlier this year with a new micro-transit system known as Scout.<\/p>\n
LYNX depends on local funding partners to continue running buses and operating in Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties. Seminole County expected significant savings after dropping most of its LYNX fixed-route service, but the proposed budget for next year shows more minimal savings.<\/p>\n
According to the budget proposal presented to Seminole County, fixed-route costs are down about $7.5 million from the last time they paid a full fiscal year in 2025. While paratransit services have increased by about $2.5 million from this fiscal year, LYNX also changed how funding partners pay for overhead costs, a move the agency said is meant to make those costs more equitable.<\/p>\n
The proposal led to heated moments during a recent Seminole County budget meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t born yesterday,\u201d Commissioner Amy Lockhart said during the meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, this doesn\u2019t feel like a partnership anymore,\u201d Commissioner Andria Herr said.<\/p>\n
Lockhart, who also sits on the LYNX board, said she voted for the funding model change only because a compromise was reached allowing federal dollars to be used to help with the transition next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have much control over the costs that are given to us by LYNX to pay,\u201d Lockhart said. \u201cWhen they give us the bill, whatever it is, we are supposed to pay it and we don\u2019t have control over that.\u201d<\/p>\n
LYNX said the change is about fairness among its funding partners. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a cost that is going to all of our funding partners,\u201d said Matt Friedman with LYNX. \u201cParatransit costs are going up about $13.5 million for the next year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Friedman also said LYNX\u2019s overhead costs are \u201csome of the lowest in the state for transit agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rising paratransit costs and changes to overhead funding have Seminole County considering whether to pull out of LYNX entirely. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they chose not to partner with us, that is a decision they have to make, and it is something they will have to take to Tallahassee to change the Florida statutes,\u201d Friedman said.<\/p>\n
Current law requires Seminole County to help fund LYNX. County leaders said they want to put funds toward more of their own services, including Scout.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour board of county commissioners is working diligently to make sure costs are contained and that we can control the amount of taxpayer money from Seminole County that has to be spent on a transportation agency that does not provide as much service in this county anymore,\u201d Lockhart said.<\/p>\n
More changes could be ahead for LYNX depending on the results of November\u2019s property tax amendment vote. According to LYNX, 92% of the agency\u2019s local funding currently comes from property taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Seminole County leaders are questioning proposed LYNX costs after the county replaced most of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53542,274,2161,115,139,141,140,9429,278,1798,835],"class_list":["post-308639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-ach-transportation","tag-app-top-stories","tag-government","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sarah-winkelmann","tag-top-stories","tag-transportation","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}