The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners heard from angry members of the public Wednesday night.
Some were angry about taxes, others were angry about traffic.
But the people who were angry about taxes won in the end.
The commission voted 4-3 to reject Go Hillsborough, a proposal to put a 30-year transit overhaul proposal, which would have been funded by a half-cent tax hike, on November's ballot for voters to decide. Commissioners Kevin Beckner and Les Miller, both Democrats, and Commissioner Ken Hagan, a Republican, supported it, while Commissioners Victor Crist, Al Higginbotham, Sandy Murman and Stacy White (all Republicans) voted it down.
The vote was simply to get the tax hike question on the ballot, not to actually fund the overhaul.
Had it gone on the ballot and passed, money raised would have been split proportionally among the county, the cities of Tampa, Plant CIty and Temple Terrace, as well as Hillsborough Avenue Regional Transit (HART).
Projects funded would have included road upgrades, pedestrian safe "complete streets," expansion of public transit options (including options for getting across the bay without a car that don't involve walking across the Gandy) and other improvements.
And even though some who showed up in protest of the plan complained about what a waste of taxpayer dollars a rail system would be, nowhere did the plan indicate that rail, light, commuter or otherwise, would be imminent if the measure passed.
Dozens of speakers offered testimony; the Tampa Tribune estimates support and opposition were about an even split.
“This is an expensive non-solution for a real problem," said Tea Party activist Sharon Calvert. "I think taxpayers deserve better. It's time for plan B. Vote no on the tax hike.”
For those in favor of overhauling the way we get around in a manner that reduces the region's carbon footprint and helps eliminate the pricey necessity of car owner ship for Tampanians, this one's probably gotta hurt.
After all, it's essentially strike three for such efforts.
In 2010, voters in Hillsborough roundly rejected a proposal that would have raise the sales tax by a penny-per-dollar (excluding big-ticket items like cars) to fund a massive overhaul that would have included a light rail line from USF to downtown Tampa.
In 2014, a similar measure was thrashed in Pinellas.
As Yoda might have said: Nice things, we can't have them. Why, this is.
Yet transit advocates may be able to take solace in the possibility of creative solutions to our transit woes that don't involve a voter-approved tax hike (which, by the way, would probably have to be sold to voters via an expensive PR campaign).
Given the pending population explosion in Tampa (which will likely consist of people who'd use rail and would prefer to walk most places if only it weren't so damned perilous), the county will soon have to think on its fee t… or, you know, split off into two counties— one where they grow strawberries out past the abandoned phosphate mines and packed drive-thru fast food lines, and one that operates on the understanding that the way development was done 20, 30, 50 years ago isn't going to fly anymore.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2016.