Daily Loaf

5-2.

That was the vote yesterday by Hillsborough County Commissioners to have the county attorney prepare a resolution indicating that the commissioners intend to look at a 1 cent sales tax referendum on the ballot a year from now.

Commissioners Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham voted no, and based on their rhetoric yesterday, show no signs of supporting the proposal when it comes back before them in the next few months.

But as long as no other commissioners defect, the path to getting the measure on the ballot will happen. (For such a referendum, the Hillsborough Charter states that there must be a super majority, or 5 votes, to do so.)

Commissioner Norman has been nothing if not consistent in his criticism of the proposal, though his reasons are multiple.

He said yesterday he would support such a plan, but not a ‘fragmented one.’

But Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who had a front row seat during the deliberations at the County Center yesterday, completely disagreed, telling WMNF radio that the plan has been prepared by the seven-county agency that is TBARTA, and is quite cohesive.

Norman also balked at the fact that there was no feasibility report attached to the proposal yesterday.

Lucia Garsys, speaking for the Hillsborough County Transportation Task Force that presented the plan, said that Mike Merrill and Eric Johnson with the County’s Budget Department were currently working with officials with HART on that, and would present it to the board by the time they next voted on the measure in December.

Coming up with a different reason why he wasn’t buying into the plan was Commissioner Higginbotham.   He said that the resolution of intent allows financial supporters (or opponents) a “cloak of secrecy” because they could contribute financially to the proposal without reporting it.

County Attorney Renee Lee said that was the case and would be until the next vote the board had on the matter in December.  Higginbotham said that Tuesday’s elections across the country indicated that “voters said yesterday that they find this type of business as usual” unacceptable.

Higginbotham said he worried about getting an earful from his grandkids in two or three decades, asking “Where’s the money?”

Commissioner Mark Sharpe, the leading cheerleader on the board to bring light rail to Tampa and the region, acknowledged that it’s always tough to ask the voters to increase their taxes, especially in the current economic environment.  But as he has said in the past, he believed the County had no alternative but to go forward, and promoted the plan (as did others) as an economic engine that will ultimately bring more jobs to Tampa Bay.

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