Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
As the race for Hillsborough County Commission District 5 winds down to election day, pause for a few moments and reflect on what Hagan calls his “track record.”
In his first term with the county, he did and said little to contribute to the public conversation. His votes on issues pretty much went along with what would benefit contributors such as Ralph Hughes.
During his term as Chairman of the BOCC, Ken Hagan has been spending money on outside consultants like it wasn’t his money. Study after study, task force after task force and the only thing Hagan has to point to is getting onto the ballot the largest tax increase in Hillsborough County’s history.
Then true to form, Hagan back peddles to pander to his other campaign contributors by saying that he does NOT support the transportation plan.
Do we REALLY want four more years under Hagan’s brand of leadership?
Do we instead want to sweep clean from County Government the incumbent dust bunnies and start over with some squeekly clean new faces like Jim Hosler?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Leadership, Tampa Choo-Choo, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Jim Hosler, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena, Tampa Choo-Choo
St. Pete Times reporter Bill Varian talks about candidates Linda Saul-Sena and Ken Hagan’s negative comments about each other. This has all the ear-marks of a cat and dog fight.
Jim Hosler comes off more like the thoughtful adult that he is.
Saul-Sena is reported as lashing out at Hagan for missing many meeting of the various county boards he represents. Hagan fires back that Saul-Sena nearly prevented IKEA from opening a new store in Ybor City.
Hagan likes to take credit for “studying” job creation.
Important, but unemployment under Hagan’s leadership
increased from 8 to 12%.
He is disingenuous about being against taxes after he voted to recommend the biggest tax increase in the history of Hillsborough County.
Linda is all about the soft stuff of “quality of life” issues.
Important, but it must be balanced with the quality of life that comes with having a good-paying job.
She is more than naive to believe that the Tampa Choo-Choo will bring jobs on Nov. 3rd for anyone other than for downtown Tampa lawyers, consultants and developers.
Jim Hosler on the other hand, has many years of experience at both the state and local government working with the small business community to create new jobs.
Hosler’s blog and website contain over 100 pages devoted to not only his positions on important topics, but also clear roadmaps on how he proposes to help bring Hillsborough County out of this recession.
Hosler is running with No Party Affiliation (NPA).
Hagan and Saul-Sena are both party-politic-puppets, always looking out for that next campaign donation, careful to deliver what is expected of them. Taxpayers only have their vote to help decide what the county does or does not do with their money.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus | Tags: Bass Pro Shop, County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
St. Pete Times business writer Robert Trigaux writes today about Florida’s strong business tax ranking. He notes that Florida has the best business tax climate of any other state this side of the Mississippi River; number five in the nation.
One of the things that makes Florida so attractive is sales taxes. Additional tax incentives would do little to influence business to locate here. He questions why, if taxes are already so favorable, why are we falling over ourselves to offer yet lower taxes to certain new or expanding businesses? He speculates that it may have more to do with the elections than the reality of attracting business.
Commissioner Ken Hagan has proposed a ballot measure that would exempt county taxes for select companies. Hagan cites Bass Pro Shops which will not locate here unless we vote to give them a free ride on taxes.
What voters have to decide is, do we want to give an out-of-town sporting goods company reduced taxes while we increase the taxes on established local sporting goods companies?
When you reduce taxes for one, you increase it for others to make up the difference.
There is no free ride when it comes to tax incentives.
Let the voters decide.
Even the Japanese media has picked up on Hagen Ken’s fantasies:
North Star Humanist Face Breaking Fist
Those attacked by this technique experience heaven before they die.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Ethics, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation, Voter Support | Tags: Bus rapid transit, County Commission, Downtown Tampa, HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Public transport, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail, Tax
Uh, come on. You can trust ME.
The news never ends about Transportation Task Force chair Mr. Ken Hagan (R) who is running for a county-wide seat on the County Board of Commissioners.
This time the news is that Hagan, oops forgot to look out for $40 MILLION he caused the county to borrow in 2008 against the last sales tax increase. Read the News Channel 8 story. The money, earmarked to fund a HART BRT project has been just sitting around, while taxpayers pay the interest on that loan, estimated to be over one and a half MILLION dollars each year. HART is now scrambling to spend it before they have to give (have it taken) back to The County.
The BRT program deserves a look-see. BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit. This is one of the most expensive modes of public transportation, second only to rail. Much more expensive than POB; Plain Old Bus service.
So, where is (was) this BRT scheduled to be built? Would you believe a few blocks away from where HART is also planning to build either another BRT line or a light-rail line? Yes boys and girls. The so-called critical north-south transit corridor to downtown ALREADY had money to build a sophisticated bus service, but wasn’t for some reason. So now HART is going to build competing transit lines in the same north-west corridor: one from the first tax increase, the second from the next tax increase.
What is that “some reason” why this north-south corridor route bus service was never pursued? Could it be that it was delayed so that ANOTHER sales tax increase could be muscled through on an unsuspecting public to pay for a Choo-Choo for Tampa?
The County and the City of Tampa, along with lawyers, consultants and developers have been working together on a scheme to use county taxpayer money to improve property values around downtown Tampa. They call it Transit Oriented Development (TOD). We should call it Tampa Oriented Development.
Why expensive light-rail instead of more cost-effective bus transit? The consultants and the lobby group Moving Hillsborough Forward determined that light-rail would have a bigger impact on Tampa property values than BRT or POB service. Plus, they found that riders would prefer to vote for a shiny new Choo-Choo than a stinky old bus. So what is the plan to get riders outside the corridors to the train stations? POB.
That $40 million is the only money that The County has given HART out of the $4 BILLION raised from the last sales tax increase. If public transportation was so important to them, Ken Hagan and the Transportation Task Force, why was only 1% of that tax used? Good question.
Hagan’s Transportation Task Force was all about property-value-enhancing rail for Tampa.
It was never about helping people get from one place to another.
If transportation was the important goal, better use of our $40 million would have been made, years ago.
Do we REALLY want to trust Commissioner Ken Hagan and HART with ANOTHER $180 MILLION per year, forever, to service the transportation needs of the tax-paying public?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Leadership, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena
Bill Varian has some interesting things to say in today’s St. Pete Times about the three candidates running for the District 5 seat on the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners.
It appears that the candidates are in a three-way tie at this time,
but each for different reasons.
Ken Hagan (R) has the name recognition, but part of this is due to vast sums of campaign money collected from downtown Tampa consultants, lawyers and developers which he uses to put his campaign signs all over the county. Still, Hagan has to live with his record of trying to destroy the region’s natural environment in favor of yet more development. No jobs have been created during his shift on the commission, except those for consultants, lawyers and developers. Hagan chaired the task force recommending the largest tax increase in Hillsborough’s history.
Candidate Linda Saul-Sena (D) has spent the last 20 years advocating only for the interests of the city of Tampa. She has a lot of supporters there who will expect her to continue to deliver for them if she should be elected to a county board seat. Linda’s track record of trying to keep IKEA from building near Ybor city speaks for her lack of job-creation skills. Linda supports the largest tax increase in Hillsborough’s history.
Candidate Jim Hosler (NPA) has 18 years experience with the Hillsborough County Planning Commission. He has worked tirelessly both in and out of government, to assist small business create jobs, including an appointment by Jeb Bush to the Florida Department of Commerce as well as now running his own small-business development company. Job creation is the number one need in the county today. Hosler feels strongly that this is not the time to increase county taxes.
Neither Hagan nor Saul-Sena have shown any ability to actually improve the quality of life for people living in Hillsborough County. So-called job creation during their participation on the city council and county commission has resulted in local unemployment going from 8 to 12% with no signs of a turnaround.
A vote for Hosler is not a “wasted” vote, because he can win this election for the voters. Votes for Hagan or Saul-Sena are wasted in that all voters can expect from them is more of the same.
We don’t need more of the same.
We need something completely different.
Only Jim Hosler is offering Hillsborough voters something different.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
Have you seen this candidate anywhere south of Bloomingdale? He is running for a county-wide seat on the Board of County Commissioners, yet he cannot be found in south county.
He is missing from candidate forums.
He is missing from community meetings.
He is missing from roundtables.
He is missing from meet and greets.
He is missing from town halls.
He is missing from outreach efforts.
If he was not elected to the county-wide seat on the BOCC,
would YOU miss him?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Downtown Tampa, HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail
TECO street car soon out of money
In today’s SP Times, Bill Varian talks about higher cost projections for Hagan’s light-rail boondoggle. The MPO had estimated the cost to be “only” $70 MILLION per mile to construct. This is the figure that the BOCC used to push this sales tax increase onto the ballot so that big-money Tampa land owners, lawyers and consultants could throw a million dollars at trying to convince voters this was a good idea.
The MPO and HART bragged about how conservative this number was. They had seen other cities face serious cost over-runs for rail construction. Now that non-partisan, nonprofit think tank Rand Corp. says that the rail will likely cost between $85 and $120 MILLION dollars per mile, both the MPO and HART are still patting themselves on the back for being so conservative with earlier cost estimates.
Huh?
Conservative cost estimates ADD money to the budget in case the project winds up costing more than projected, as it did in other cities studied. MPO seemed to have confused “conservative estimate” by putting out a LOWER number. Now that HART’s best guess of $70 million per mile is off by almost 100%, they claim that their “best estimate” is still 50% LESS than what they guessed it would cost to build.
HART claims that the Rand figures are nothing more than “back of the envelope” numbers. What then does that make the HART figures: “back of the napkin” numbers? Folks, they STILL haven’t picked a route or determined the most cost-effective mode of transit.
It is becoming more clear that whatever we are being told, this whole thing is going to cost more; much more. Perhaps we could get more accurate figures by 2012 when we could vote on this again?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena
Cry-baby Ken Hagan was at it again this week.
Ken admits taking down one of Linda Saul-Sena campaign signs which had upset his tender sensibilities. What upset him the most was that she used his own words.
Cry-baby Linda says that Ken should keep his grubby little hands off her stuff.
Catch the Bay News 9 Video
Can’t we just have less crying and more discussions about things the voting public really cares about, like ethics in county government, meaningful term limits, non-partisan county politics, safe drinking water and accountability for spending our tax dollars?
Jim Hosler seems to be the only adult running in this race.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Sign Wars erupted today at an early voting location. Creative Loafing broke the story.
It seems candidate Hagan didn’t like the public being reminded of his stand on honoring Condederate Memorial Day.
Taking matters into his own hands, Hagan reportedly removed the sign, with his own hands. We wonder if he got his hands dirty.
Interesting comments from both Hosler and Saul-Sena campaign camps is that their signs go missing while nearby Hagan signs remain. Coincidence?
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 