Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on transportation:
On the eve of Hillsborough’s big transportation summit, Sandy Murman drops her own plan
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 7:14pm
TAMPA — A 2016 transportation referendum lost a key vote Wednesday night when Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman said she would not support putting a sales tax on next year’s ballot.
Instead, Murman released her own transportation plan on the eve of the long-awaited presentation of the county’s Go Hillsborough initiative — a transportation plan more than a year in the making.
The Go Hillsborough report will get its first public airing at a meeting today of the Hillsborough Policy Leadership Group, a gathering of elected county and city officials.
But Murman’s release of her plan pre-empts discussion from local leaders on the merits and features of the Go Hillsborough report.
“I appreciate her willingness to look at options,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. “I think it’s a little unfair at the last minute of what has been an 18-month exhaustive process … to put this on the table.”
Hillsborough County staffers are expected to present the details of a report released Monday that outlines three different transportation plans and six funding methods that could be used to find those options. The plan was drawn up by engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Go Hillsborough doesn’t highlight a specific plan or funding source, but offers plenty of options for both.
Murman, however, wants to take one funding option off the table right now.
“I want to consider an option without a referendum,” she said. “Too many people want to get stuff done now. They don’t want to wait to see if a referendum will pass or not.”
Murman’s plan looks to combine funds from five sources — a gas tax, mobility fees, a trust fund for transportation based on new growth, money from the recent BP oil spill settlement and contingency reserves — instead of asking voters to approve a sales tax. But officials already have different ambitions for some of those sources, such as the BP settlement money.
Though the Go Hillsborough plan includes several of these funding sources, Murman said the plan is actually aimed at convincing leaders that a sales tax is the only option.
“They’re trying to make the case that all these combined still don’t equal the sales tax,” she said. “But what it comes down to is they really want us to come back to a referendum.”
Others on the policy leadership group, including Buckhorn and Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, said it is important to give voters the chance to decide whether a sales tax is necessary.
“I think we were all elected to lead and not cower,” Buckhorn said.
“I don’t have any issue with anyone that opposes the sales tax; that’s their right,” Hagan said. “I just cannot ignore the fact that there is no other way to pay for our transportation needs. I feel very strongly the public has the right to weigh in on this.”
Both a sales tax for transportation and the Go Hillsborough initiative have come under fire the past two months as critics questioned the propriety of the $1.35 million planning and outreach contract awarded to Parsons Brinckerhoff because it hired public relations consultant Beth Leytham. County leaders have denied any wrongdoing, and the contract is under investigation.
“We all knew there was going to be opposition to this,” Buckhorn said. “The usual suspects will raise the usual arguments and attempt to throw sands in the gears of progress. That’s a given.
“But those other voices do not speak for the county.”
