![]() And they need other kinds of infrastructure, too. “There’s huge needs for road improvements in all parts of the unincorporated parts of the county, far outside the city,” she says. Janet Scherberger with Bike/Walk Tampa strongly supports the referendum, and pushes back on the idea that projects in Tampa will get stronger consideration for funding than those in other areas of the county. Hillsborough County Attorney Christine Beck told the Tampa Bay Times that the county “will vigorously defend this important initiative to allow the citizens of Hillsborough County to have a voice in the transportation needs of our county.” The only thing a vote for this referendum does it saddle people with a new thirty-year tax.” “The board knows it’s not true because the Florida Supreme Court told it so when it invalidated this same tax just last year after the County illegally took hundreds of millions of dollars from the people. That is not true,” Jaroch told Spectrum Bay News 9. “The ballot language misleads the people into thinking their vote will build and widen roads in Brandon or expand public transit options in Town ‘n’ Country for thirty years. ![]() She’s alleging that the ballot language is unlawful and should be removed from the Nov. Jim Davison served as a member of the "Committee of '99" in 1999 that was tasked with studying how to improve the transportation system in Hillsborough County (Mitch Perry/Spectrum Bay News 9)Īnother critic, Karen Jaroch, has already filed a lawsuit against the measure. “Unless you’re telling me it’s fair to have your neighbor fix your roof, then it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” says Jim Davison, a New Tampa-based physician who’s been involved in transportation issues in Hillsborough County going back to the previous century, when he served on the “Committee of 99,” a group of prominent Hillsborough residents, activists and business leaders who convened to discuss the county’s transportation issues in 1999. One talking point they espouse is that the majority of people who live outside of Tampa will be paying a disproportionate share for projects that will mostly benefit those inside the city. The county and its three cities (Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City) would divide 54.5% based on their populations, and one-half percent would go to the Hillsborough Transportation Planning Organization.įormal opposition comes from the same coalition who opposed the measure in 2018, NoTaxForTracks. Nearly half of those funds (45%) would go directly to HART. If approved by the voters, the tax is projected to raise $342 million in its first year. Unlike their effort in 2018 when they collected nearly 59,000 signatures to qualify to get the measure on the November ballot, they were spared that extra work this year when the county commission voted 5-2 in April to place the transportation referendum on the Nov. ![]() The campaign for the referendum begins later this week, when All for Transportation, the same campaign organization that successfully advocated for the measure in 2018, will hold a “community kick off” event at their new headquarters in Ybor City. Now with inflation at its highest level in 40 years, the question is: will Hillsborough voters come out in as strong of support for the measure as they did in 2018? In response, the County Commission voted earlier this year to place another one-cent sales tax for transportation on this November’s ballot. The proposal calls for 45% of the proceeds to go to Hillsborough Area Regional Authority (HART), with the remaining 54.5% going to the county and the three cities in it: Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant Cityīut the Florida Supreme Court voided the referendum last year, supporting the claim made by Commissioner Stacy White that the measure violated the state constitution.
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