Over the past year, fervent Tea Party activists in Pinellas County began making their voices heard at the county center in Clearwater. They hammered local legislators regarding the 2012 FY budget and were successful in getting a majority of Commissioners to remove fluoride from the drinking supply last fall.
Now their target is a proposal to create a 24-mile light-rail system linking the central part of downtown St. Petersburg with Clearwater — with voters weighing in on a possible sales tax referendum next year to pay for it.
Betsy Burgess said she hasn't seen the level of outrage locally about an issue since activists crashed town hall meetings on health care reform back in August of 2009. She declared that light rail was no longer popular, calling it as fresh as a hula hoop.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2012.