Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Bay Times article on transportation:
Hillsborough commission told to act on transportation: ‘Land this plan in April’
By Caitlin Johnston, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 6, 2016 12:37pm
TAMPA — Hillsborough County commissioners say this is the month when they will finally decide how to fund the county’s transportation needs — including whether to let voters have their say in November.
After 2½ years of meetings, postponed votes, countless delays and a sheriff’s investigation, commissioners on Wednesday settled on a decision-making timeline — and they say this time they mean it.
County Administrator Mike Merrill made a presentation to commissioners Wednesday outlining the two transportation funding options before them: the Go Hillsborough half-cent sales tax referendum and mobility fees for developers.
“We’ve really exhausted all of the information that we need to provide,” Merrill said. “I don’t think it gets any better at this point.”
He encouraged commissioners to “land this plan in April.”
Merrill mapped out the steps he suggests the board takes over the next couple weeks for deciding on each funding option.
County staff hopes to address any concerns with the mobility fees plan during next week’s transportation workshop on April 13, including the issue of credit buy backs. Developers hold more than $90 million in credits awarded for building roads on the existing system that they were told they could use to offset future fees.
Merrill encouraged commissioners to set dates for separate public hearings, which will be the public’s chance to offer input on both funding choices. Then the commission will have two decisions to make:
Will they vote to put the half-cent sales tax on the November ballot?
Will developers have to pay more in mobility fees to help pay the county’s transportation costs?
The public hearing for mobility fees would likely take place on April 26, potentially at another site, instead of the county building in downtown Tampa. Commissioner Stacy White encouraged staff to pick a location in south county, which he said would be the area most affected by the commission’s decisions. Merrill suggested the hearing for the sales tax take place the next evening, April 27, also at an off-site location.
The proposed sales tax would raise about $117 million a year. A quarter of that would go to the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority. The remaining 75 percent would be divided between the county and three cities based on population.
Each jurisdiction would be able to spend those dollars how it see fits — be it on road expansion and maintenance for the county or a transit system connecting downtown Tampa to Tampa International Airport.
About 60 percent of projects in the first 10 years are related to roads, Merrill said. The other 40 percent would include transit projects such as express busses and an expanded streetcar line.
Opponents such as Hillsborough County Tea Party co-founder Sharon Calvert have blasted the plan since its earliest versions were floated last summer, saying the county should not rely on taxing voters to fund transportation improvements.
“Instead of a broad base of support, Go Hillsborough has a broad base of opposition,” Calvert said. “The template that has been used numerous times in the Tampa Bay area to push sales tax hike referendums that continue to fail are broken.”
Commissioners Les Miller, Kevin Beckner and Ken Hagan support the sales tax hike, while White, Sandy Murman and Al Higginbotham are against it.
Commissioner Victor Crist still appears to be the swing vote. His line of questioning Wednesday focused on distinguishing between what the county and the City of Tampa would spend its share of the money on.
“This is flexible enough to cater to the needs of the people in each of those individual areas,” Crist said. The county’s share would go mostly to roads and the cities’ share would go to transit. Crist also asked Merrill to confirm that there is no rail system planned in the unincorporated county.
“So all this talk that this is a huge rail project is really false and misleading?” Crist asked. Merrill confirmed that.
Hagan drew a distinction between this plan and a similar referendum in 2010 that voters soundly defeated. The 2010 plan was a full-cent tax whose main project was a light rail system. The 2016 version is a half cent split between roads and transit options.
Commissioners initially expected to vote on ballot language last fall, but an investigation into whetherwell-connected Tampa public relations consultant Beth Leytham helped steer a $1.35 million Go Hillsborough contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff, a longtime client which then hired her to work on the project, stalled the process.
The inquiry cleared Leytham and county officials of any criminal wrongdoing last month.
