The Hillsborough County Commission today holds a meeting in which they'll conduct their 2d vote on moving forward a ballot referendum proposal that would ask citizens if they wish to pay an added penny on sales taxes in the country for transportation -including the first part of a light rail system .
After Sam Rashid's column in the Tribune was published yesterday, both the Tribune and the Times are weighing in again on the matter today.
The Trib goes after Rashid's pretzel logic that he issued yesterday, writing,
Here in Hillsborough, two contradictory criticisms are being leveled at any commissioner willing to give voters a choice. The first is that allowing the issue to go to a vote is to be pro-tax. The second is that holding a vote is pointless because the tax is sure to fail.
Both can't be true; in fact, neither is. The vote could go either way.
But after the rail issue has been argued for 20 years, surely the time has come to find out what ordinary people think.
There have been reports in recent days that there will be more groups, presumably of a conservative bent but perhaps not, that will be coming out of the woodwork to protest against the proposed sales tax hike.
Yesterday, former County Commissioner Brian Blair, now a candidate for State House, blasted the proposal, stating in a press release that
Why we're even considering a new tax now, in this economy, with the unemployment rate where it is, when we have dollars that haven't been spent yet, is beyond me," Blair said recently.
"Pushers of this tax will tell you that light rail and buses are the panacea for traffic congestion, but that's just not the case," Blair said. "National transit authorities have already indicated that an average community can't take more than five percent* of traffic off the road simply with light rail and buses." *USA Today, 2008
"Worse", Blair said, is what he terms "government greed" at work in this instance.
Let's face it. With the GOP at its highest levels trying to install litmus tests for candidates, supporting any tax (especially in this recession) is gutsy for the 3 Republicans have indicated support for the proposal (Mark Sharpe, Rose Ferlita and Ken Hagen).
But with the two Democrats on board (Kevin Beckner and Kevin White), as long as those three members remain steadfast, Hillsborough voters will be allowed their own say on the matter next November. I'm pretty confident that they won't budge, but then again, Sharpe and Ferlita are considered moderate who probably aren't as bothered by any attacks they may get from the far right as perhaps Commissioner Hagen might be. We'll be at the meeting this morning and report back, especially if it gets spicy.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.