Big spender Commissioner Ken Hagan a Tea Partier?

By Kelly Cornelius on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 11:54 am

And finally, I wonder if they know that this is the same Hagan that promoted spending almost all of the unallocated funds from the Community Investment Tax (CIT) on Transportation Task Force projects back in 2007 leaving virtually nothing for future boards even though the tax doesn't sunset until 2025. Even Commissioner Jim Norman lobbied to save some of those funds for future boards. Here is a quote from Norman at that meeting:

>>JIM NORMAN: WELL, I'LL SAY WHAT I SAID BEFORE.

I BELIEVE THAT THE FUNDING SHOULD BE SPLIT.

I BELIEVE 500 SHOULD GO TO TRANSPORTATION, BUT, YOU KNOW, YOU'RE USING ALL THIS MONEY TO THE END OF THE LIFE OF THE CIT.

THAT'S 19 YEARS OF COMMISSIONS THAT WON'T HAVE ANY ABILITY TO DESIGNATE WHERE ANY FUNDS WILL GO.

I BELIEVE THAT FUTURE BOARDS SHOULD HAVE THAT RIGHT.

Yep, only 11 years into a 30-year tax Hagan convinced board members to hand him over the rest of it.

Oh and get this, Hagan's Transportation Task Force (same one that recommended the developer pork) spent 8 million dollars on consultants to tell them how to spend those remaining CIT dollars and so far it doesn't look like they got much for your 8 million.

According to the article during the tea party he vowed to:

"take back our government" in the elections this fall.

I think that is just how many involved citizens (myself included) feel locally about taking government back from Commissioners like him this fall.

Half Truth Hagan a Tea Partier? With a liberal spending record like that, I seriously doubt he is their cup of tea.

Photo credit: Evelyn Saenz @Flickr.com

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It must take guts for a big spender like Commissioner Ken Hagan to speak at a Tea Party, which he did on Thursday according to this article on TBO. I wonder if those Tea Partiers knew that Hagan recently voted to give embattled County Administrator Pat Bean a paid leave on their dime? Bean wasn't the first embattled employee that Hagan opened your wallet to either according to this past Tribune editorial. I wonder if they knew how many tax dollars were spent on his cockamamie idea to sell off public land to private investors who also happened to be big-time Republican campaign donors?

I wonder if they knew he didn't even address the recent audit on impact fees to developers showing that they were inadequate? Or that the very same developer welfare regarding those impact fees helped to put our county billions behind in transportation including putting Hillsborough County in the hole over $11,000 for every rooftop he approves. I wonder if they know he supports asking you to increase Hillsborough's sales tax to become the highest in the state via ballot referendum to pay for said deficits in transportation? Do they know about his millions of proposed developer pork in that referendum that finally had to be butchered in order for the referendum to move forward? What about his recent flirting with the idea of bringing the Rays to Hillsborough? Hagan says he does not support public financing to fund a stadium but I wonder who he expects to pay for it?