Water taxi for Whitney? No way

It is surely dismaying how our elected representatives at every level of government are so willing to spend your money on ventures and programs they would never spend with their own money.

Take, for instance, the Manatee County water taxi program, which the county inaugurated in 2023.

As reported last week, north Longboat Key residents are rather alarmed that Manatee County officials have mentioned as a potential docking point the canals behind the Whitney Beach Plaza.

To be sure, it’s only talk at this point; nothing is definitive. Nor should it ever be.

Manatee officials conceived of the water taxi as a way to reduce the volume of bottlenecked cars and people on Manatee Avenue and Cortez Road going to and from the beaches. Coquina Beach to the mainland makes sense.

But a water taxi navigating the narrow canals of a residential area on Longboat Key? No way.

For that matter, while a water taxi sounds like a good idea, by our way of thinking if it were such a good idea, typically the private sector would fill the need.

Instead, we see, the County Commission allocated $400,000 to the water taxi system in the current fiscal year. Make a note: Let’s check during the next budget cycle how the taxi system fared.