Commissioner Murman quoted in this Creative Loafing article on transportation:
After years of debate, Hillsborough approves $600 million for transportation over the next decade
SEP. 9, 2016 1:20 P.M.
Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to approve Commissioner Al Higginbotham’s proposal to dedicate $600 million to fix roads, intersections, sidewalks and bridges.
This comes after six years of heated debate on how to pay for the county’s transportation needs, including a failed penny sales tax for transportation in 2010 and this year’s failed attempt at a half-cent referendum, which didn’t even make it onto the ballot. Meanwhile, the area earned a bad reputation nationally for its congested roads in need of repair and lack of mass transit and safe pedestrian paths.
Higginbotham’s last-minute proposal required commissioners to devote $35 million to transportation next year and increase the allocation by $5 million every year for the next 10 years.
But local residents expressed their concern with the county’s budget while others said there isn’t enough funding dedicated to transportation.
“In fiscal year 2017, there’s $30 million of impact fee buybacks in the transportation funding. $30 million for 2017 is not going to transportation. That’s not for transportation projects,” tea party activist Sharon Calvert said.
Others urged the county commissioners to lobby the state to receive more money.
“The county needs a lot of money. We just don’t have it,” said George Niemann. “I implore you to lobby with the state. The city says they’re going to lobby.”
The plan approved Thursday does not include any significant investment in public transit as the sales tax money would have; it instead mostly focuses on safety projects and maintenance.
Commissioner Sandy Murman also proposed a plan to raise an estimated $820 million over the next 10 years and set aside one-third of growth from property tax revenue for road work and other transportation projects.
The county’s financial advisers criticized the plan because it could cause a downgrade in the county’s AAA bond rating due to its inability to deal with an economic dip, which could jeopardize debt payments, according to TBO.com
Amid these concerns, commissioners chose Higginbotham’s plan over Murman’s.
Murman expressed worry that Higginbotham’s plan would turn into a “shell game” since money isn’t being dedicated to transportation first and foremost.
“This is a short-term solution,” Murman said. “We all know where we’re heading when you get the premium transit plan back. We have to go to the voters at some point with this robust, multimodaltransit plant that’s going to come in front of us.”
