Three weeks ago CL reported that there appeared to be little support among the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners to get behind a proposed property tax referendum that would provide funding to restore the Friendship Trail Bridge and a host of other projects.
Now the Tampa Tribune's Mike Salinero reports that the referendum proposal appears to be D.O.A., with the new idea being to hire a private company to raze the current bridge and rebuild a pedestrian span, a public-private partnership called for in the proposal by the coalition trying to save the structure.
There's five months left in the calendar year, and there are some serious budget issues that Congress and the President will have to work out before then. If they don't? Taxes go back up for everyone (including those making less than $250,000), and there could be as much as $500 billion in cuts to the Pentagon. Three GOP Senators made the case against those cuts yesterday in Tampa, throwing out the MacDill AFB might close card.
The Log Cabin Republicans are making plans for Tampa for the RNC, even though they may ultimately not endorse their presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.
And Sarasota Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan was supposed to attend a deposition in a lawsuit yesterday, but he blew it off, claiming his attorney was sick. A few hours later he made time for a fundraiser, however. His Democratic opponent this fall, Keith Fitzgerald, was not pleased.
