Credit: Hillsborough County
Subject: Commissioner Hagan, Where Are Our Priorities? $796 Million for the Rays While Northwest Hillsborough Waits
Commissioner Hagan and Members of the Hillsborough County Commission,
I am going to start by saying something I probably should have said a long time ago.
Three months ago, I contacted Commissioner Hagan about a dangerous curb here in Northwest Hillsborough County. Specifically at Gunn Hwy and Tarpon Springs Rd. I was concerned enough about it that I took the time to report it and ask for help. I got the usual response that he would forward the information to Public Works.
They investigated and decided it was part of the agreement with the developer of a large estate built at the intersection. Even though its on a county road. This is a very dangerously placed piece of concrete protruding from the road in the wrong spot. Making entry onto Gunn Hwy even more dangerous than it already is.
According to records, Commissioners Hagan and Cepeda are aware of this danger. Yet it’s still there and no one can seem to take responsibility nor the initiative to correct it.
So, Commissioner Hagan, I don’t expect much of a resolution this time either. I certainly don’t expect one of those nice little answers that sounds good but doesn’t actually fix anything.
But I’m going to say what I have to say anyway.
I am 85 years old. My family has lived on, farmed and worked the same piece of land in Northwest Hillsborough County for more than 100 years. I have watched this county change my whole life. I remember when there were groves, cow pastures, pine trees and open land where there are now houses, shopping centers and miles of concrete.
And I have watched our roads get busier and more dangerous while we are continually told there isn’t enough money to fix the problems.
Well, excuse me, but I have a hard time understanding that anymore.
Because now this County Commission is preparing to commit $796 million plus interest in Hillsborough County money and resources toward a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium.
The final stadium agreement released August 21 puts the stadium project at approximately $2.361 billion. Hillsborough County’s share is $796 million plus interest and the City of Tampa’s share is $80 million, for a total local public contribution of $876 million plus interest.
And before anybody starts telling us this is just “a tiny part” of a big private investment, let’s remember whose money and accrued interest it is.
The County’s $796 million with interest includes:
$360 million from the Community Investment Tax.
$303 million from Tourist Development Tax revenues and reserves.
$103 million in other county resources.
$30 million in federal disaster-recovery money.
That $360 million CIT money especially gets my attention.
The County’s own records say the Community Investment Tax has helped pay for 115 road projects, 70 intersection projects, 32 stormwater projects, 24 fire stations and 13 sidewalk projects, among other things.
So please don’t tell the people of Odessa/Keystone that there is no money…again.
There obviously is money.
There is $796 million for a baseball stadium.
Apparently there just isn’t enough money for everything else.
And that is where I have a real problem.
For years, people in Northwest Hillsborough have been trying to get attention paid to the roads around here.
Tarpon Springs Road and Patterson Road is one of those places. People out here have been asking about the safety of that intersection for years. According to public works, there has been an approved light for that intersection for decades. There have been wrecks and close calls, and people have been asking for basic safety improvements.
Just last week, I was stuck in standstill traffic for over an hour less than a mile from my home. All from another wreck at Boyscout Rd and Tarpon Springs Rd.
According to local deputies, it’s another “death trap”out here.
There’s not even a shoulder to reroute traffic on.
We keep hearing about money.
We keep hearing about priorities.
We keep hearing that these things have to wait.
But now we have hundreds of millions of dollars being put on the table for a baseball stadium.
You can understand why people are angry.
And this isn’t just something I have read about in the newspaper.
My own granddaughter was almost killed at Gunn Highway and Wayne Road about a year ago while she was leaving the library. 3 cars were totaled. Including her’s.
Everyone survived, thank God.
But that accident scared her so badly that she has told me she doesn’t want to drive anymore.
My grandson was also involved in a crash on Gunn Hwy that could’ve been avoided with a safer road. He was injured in that crash.
And then there is what happened to former Commissioner and current County Clerk of the Court Victor Crist on Gunn Highway. He was involved in a serious crash there and was in intensive care. He was so badly injured.
Maybe some people can look at these things as just accidents.
I can’t.
When you have lived here as long as I have, you know that roads don’t stay safe just because somebody puts a speed limit sign up. Roads have to be planned for the amount of traffic they are carrying. Intersections have to be looked at. Lighting matters. Curbs matter. Drainage matters. Visibility matters. Then revisions need to be made in a timely manner.
And when people keep bringing these things to the County and keep being told there isn’t enough money, they have every right to ask why there suddenly seems to be plenty of money for a professional baseball stadium.
Commissioner Hagan, you have been sitting on that Commission for a very long time. Since 2002, 24 years. In what is essentially a part time job.
You have been around long enough to remember what happened with Jim Norman and the ethics problems surrounding him. You might even remember what happened to the other career commissioners from the 80’s who went to prison for their own pay to play records.
You were also around for the history of this county’s deals with professional sports and publicly financed stadiums.
You know better than most people that once the taxpayers get involved, these deals don’t just disappear after the ribbon cutting.
And I haven’t forgotten your own ethics issues either.
In 2014, you admitted that you failed to properly disclose financial assets on your required financial disclosure forms for over a decade and agreed to pay a paltry $2,000 fine. If I don’t report my income as required by a government entity, I’m certain I’d get treated far differently than that.
I’m not bringing that up because I think it automatically means you should vote one way or another.
I’m bringing it up because trust matters.
When you’re asking taxpayers to trust you with $796 million plus interest, you don’t get to be offended when they ask questions.
And I don’t appreciate being ignored and rerouted into oblivion when I raise a safety problem and then expected to sit quietly while the County finds hundreds of millions of dollars for a stadium.
I’m sorry, but I’m too old for that.
I’ve lived here too long.
I’ve paid taxes here too long.
I’ve watched too much change here to sit quietly now.
I am not against baseball.
I am not against the Rays.
I am against the idea that a baseball team gets a check for hundreds of millions of dollars while ordinary people are told to wait for safe roads and basic infrastructure.
If you want my support for this stadium deal, then answer some simple questions.
Why is $796 million plus interest available for the stadium?
Why is $360 million of the Community Investment Tax being committed to it when the County itself says that tax has to be used for roads and intersections?
What happens to the road projects that were already waiting?
What happens to the intersections and eroding roads that need immediate attention?
What happens to the people who live out here and have been told there isn’t enough money?
And most importantly:
Why does a professional sports franchise get this kind of urgency when the safety of the people who already live here apparently does not?
I don’t want another speech about economic development.
I don’t want another speech about how wonderful this project will be.
I don’t want to hear that it is going to create jobs or bring visitors to Tampa.
Tell that to the grandmother whose granddaughter’s car was totaled at an intersection that she already knew was dangerous.
Tell that to the people who have been asking for improvements on Gunn Hwy, Tarpon Springs Road, Race Track Rd and Patterson Road and all of the roads in Odessa/Keystone proper.
Tell that to the person who reported a dangerous curb three months ago and couldn’t even get a resolution from her commissioner of 24 years.
That’s what this vote is really about.
It’s about priorities.
And on the day you vote, I hope every Commissioner remembers that $796 million plus interest is not Monopoly money.
It belongs to the people of Hillsborough County.
We don’t own the Rays.
We don’t get their profits.
We don’t get a piece of the team.
But we are being asked to put up hundreds of millions of our public resources for their new home.
I’ve lived out here longer than you’ve all been alive.
I’ve watched this county grow from a place where everybody knew their neighbors into the enormous county it is today.
I don’t expect things to stay the way they were when I was a girl.
But I do expect the people running this county to remember who they work for.
We are not asking for a baseball stadium.
We are asking for safe roads.
We are asking for safe intersections.
We are asking for basic infrastructure.
We are asking you to listen when your constituents call.
And we are asking you to spend our money like it matters.
Because it does.
I am sending this to the local newspapers, television stations, reporters, investigative journalists and independent media around the state.
People deserve to know what this Commission is doing with their money and how real, average everyday stakeholders feel.
And when you vote, Commissioner Hagan, I hope you remember that some of us have been here a lot longer than the Rays have.
We aren’t going anywhere.
And neither are we going to stop asking questions.
A lifelong Hillsborough County taxpayer, still residing on over 100yr old family land.—Linda Martin
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