Maybe it should be called Gone Hillsborough instead of Go Hillsborough. That would be a more appropriate name for this county undertaking that seeks to bring a transit sales tax initiative to the voters in 2016.
Success has been more than problematic from the get-go.
First things first. A county-wide tax for virtually anything is a long shot. Cities the size of Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and St. Petersburg need to have their own, city-only referenda. It’s called self-determination. The Florida Legislature won’t hear of it.
That’s unconscionable and unfair. In Tampa’s case, meaningful mass transit is the one big deficit in its pursuit of unrealized potential. Just ask Rick Homans, Jeff Vinik or Bob Buckhorn.
Second, the way this half-cent/one-cent tax was proposed, it comes up too road centric. There is no future in enabling sprawl. Mass transit options are minimized to mollify the “No Tax for Tracks” set. Funding sources are rigidly limited.
And, third, with the Sheriff’s Office called in to investigate the Go Hillsborough engineering-bid process, this flawed plan is now tainted with conflict-of-interest accusations. From public outreach to public outrage. From skeptics to cynics. The most likely result: It won’t be voted down, because it won’t be voted on. Period.
“If a vote was taken today, the votes aren’t there for this thing to pass,” was the recent assessment of Commissioner Al Higginbotham.
Ironically, the only chance that Go Hillsborough, however compromised, has for ballot success in 2016 may lie with an all-out, first-class public relations blitz that puts the focus squarely where it belongs–the future of this region. But who to call on this one?
Your comment about “Gone Hillsborough” caught my eye. I wrote a letter to the editor at Tampa Tribune which was printed today (7 Oct) commenting about an earlier letter about continual street work in Tampa. My letter was printed as written except for the last sentence which read: I suspect that the street work was planned in support of the Go Hillsborough tax increase. My suspicion seems to have been confirmed.
What say you?