Hillsborough County Commissioners rejected a half-penny sales tax that would have funded projects to improve transportation and transit in the county for the next 20 years.
In a four-hour meeting on Thursday, the Board of County Commissioners voted 4-3 against the measure that the county estimates would have raised $117.5 million a year for transportation needs in Hillsborough County.
Commissioners Victor Crist, Al Higginbotham, Sandy Murman and Stacy White voted against a referendum that would have allowed voters to decide on the sales tax hike in November. Kevin Beckner, Ken Hagan and Les Miller voted for it.
“I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would have an issue with allowing the public to vote on the number one issue facing our community,” Hagan said. “Why would we deprive the public of that right?”
It's the second time this year voters rejected a ballot proposal that would have increased the sales tax and earmarked the money for overhauls of roads and buses with the help of easing the county's notorious traffic woes. Voters rejected a ballot measure that was similar in spirit in 2010 in Hillsborough, and voters in Pinellas rejected one in 2014.
Although the commissioners initially intended to vote on a 15-year tax during Thursday’s meeting, the proposal became a 20-year tax so it may qualify for bonding and federal grants.
This is the second time in less than two months that the commissioners failed to reach a consensus on the transportation sales tax.
On April 27, the commissioners rejected the twenty-year half-cent Go Hillsborough transportation tax. That proposal also failed on a 4-3 vote.
Like the first meeting, public comment was nearly split in half between those who supported and opposed the sales tax on Thursday. According to Crist’s tally, 33 community members spoke in favor of a referendum, whereas 32 spoke against it.
Among the supporters, many advocated for the 20-year sales tax to significantly improve roads, intersections, sidewalks, bridges and transit. Advocates wore buttons that said “Yes! to 20,” a campaign initiated by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
Supporters of the sales tax emphasized that Tampa’s current and projected growth necessitates innovating Hillsborough County’s transportation.
“The world is looking at Tampa right now. We’ve entered a global position where people have got their eye on us,” Topher Morrison said. “Major corporations, millions of people and small businesses are looking to this place to see if this is the place they want to live… The economic impact of not taking forward steps to transforming our transportation overshadows the motivation for big companies to move here.”
Other supporters also stressed that Hillsborough County has an inadequate transit system.
Brian Willis, a Carrollwood native, is a bus rider who takes the 4 to work.
“The bus that I have only has the funding to run every hour. If I miss that bus, I have to wait an hour,” Willis said. “No one can live like that. No one can work like that in a practical manner. It’s unacceptable.”
Critics questioned the county’s management of funds and urged the commissioners to reprioritize the budget, claiming that there is enough money in the county’s existing budget to pay for transportation needs.
“The fact that you intentionally are not fixing the potholes and are letting transportation crumble is your own fault,” Tea Party activist Leonard Mead said. “Now you come here and say you want to raise taxes to fund transportation? … Reallocate the funds you already have and put it into transportation.”
There was a general consensus among community members that there is a significant need for transit and transportation improvements in Hillsborough County, despite the public’s differing opinions how to pay for these needs.
After rejecting the sales tax, the commissioners then voted 4-3 on an alternative proposal introduced by Commissioner Sandra Murman Wednesday afternoon to divert property tax revenues and future growth in sales to transportation projects.
“The referendum versus doing a TIF [tax increment financing] really give you almost the same amount of money in the end over 10 years,” Murman said.
With Murman’s plans, the county attorney would have to create two trust funds—one for inside the county and one for the unincorporated parts of the county. This would begin the process of creating a “growth trust fund” to start improving transportation issues in the county.
“There’s not just one shot for going forward. There’s many different routes we can take,” Murman said. “The new tax revenue that we bring in—property and sales tax— can help get our roads fixed, get some transit options going and help the city with some needs that it has.”
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2016.