A 527 group called the Florida Future Leaders Fund based out of Miami is listed as being the organization responsible for mailers attacking Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern regarding water rates in the city.
The mailer quotes Mulhern in 2007 as advocating for higher water rates because Tampa citizens need to be charged more for water so "they'll think twice about using it."
On August 9, 2007, the City Council passed a measure that effectively doubled the water rates in the city over the following five years, moving up incrementally on a year by year basis. They did so after being encouraged to do so by Mayor Pam Iorio. At the time the city paid some of the lowest rates in the entire Bay area.
The rate increase was also needed to pay for infrastructure improvements with an expansion of the STAR II reclaimed water system.
Why bring up that vote from over 3 1/2 years ago? Well certainly any time an elected official pays for a tax or a fee increase, it could make them vulnerable to exactly this sort of attack by an opponent. But it ties in nicely with the heavily reported story of massive price hikes in water bills for thousands of Tampa citizens in the last couple of months.
When asked about the mailer today, Mulhern denounced it as "typical lies" that occur right before an election, when candidates have no time to defend themselves.
She says the research that city officials have done in the wake of the story of high water bills being exposed in January has been a problem with the reading of meters and the billing cycle, and not about the top two tiers of billing, which went into effect last year as part of the water rate increase. "We raised the water rates during a time of drought, " she says, adding that people's water bills went up (some as much as ten times their normal amount) while having nothing to do with their usage. She said if anyone has proven so far that the water rate hike of '07 has had anything to do with the recent problems, they should "show me," and everyone else for that matter.
We last heard from the mysterious Florida Future Leaders Fund back in August, when they mailed out fliers attacking Sandy Murman in her run for the Republican nomination for Hillsborough County Commission against Trey Rustmann. Murman defeated Rustmann handily on August 24.
Mulhern is in a contested race for re-election in Tampa's city-wide District 2 race against Scott Strepina and Susan Long.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2011.