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.
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: Economic Stimulus, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: Bus rapid transit, County Commission, Ken Hagan, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail
After 15 MONTHS of additional study by an expensive, outside consulting group, the resulting 125-page Alternatives Analysis Study STILL says “I don’t know” to the important questions as to which transit routes would best serve the community and which mode of transportation would be most cost-effective.
This report was to be the result of “a planning process to determine the transit mode and the alignment that best meets the needs of the community.” They only looked at two route corridors in Tampa, not the entire county. Now we need to wait for a “Locally Preferred Alternative” (LPA) study.
Just how hard is it to add Plain Old Bus (POB) service along any route, without another bazillion-dollar study?
We already voted to tax ourselves a half-penny Community Investment Tax (CIT) added to the sales tax years ago for among other things, transportation.
We will still be paying on that added $4 BILLION tax for the next 15 years.
We already have 100 of the needed buses sitting in HART parking lots. We just need drivers and maintenance workers.
Here’s a thought: Use that CIT money to give jobs to several hundred of otherwise unemployed Hillsborough residents and put those buses on the road.
The problem is that members of the HART board of directors have been snookered by downtown property owners and lobbyists into believing that increasing property values under the guise of “economic development” is more important than serving the riding public.
Consultants, lawyers and developers all tell us that new restaurants, strip-malls and hotels will spring up near rail stations. What they don’t say is that the jobs thus created will largely be low-wage, part-time, no-benefits jobs.
The board voted 9-0 to go ahead anyway with light-rail before route, mode and cost-effectiveness questions were answered.
Why are the consultants comparing only Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and light-rail?
Because, although Plain Old Bus is cheaper and more flexible, BRT is far more expensive with its fixed guide ways, and BRT makes rail seem more affordable.
If the whole intent of candidate Ken Hagan’s Transportation Task Force was to foster economic development surrounding downtown Tampa, why not say so up-front instead of claiming that this sales tax increase was to help people get from one place to another?
Considering the TOTAL costs involved with light-rail, HART could instead use that tax money to double their MetroRapid and Plain Old Bus services while letting passengers ride free.
Are Hillsborough voter/taxpayers going to approve an added $180 MILLION yearly tax to pay for Tampa’s downtown property-value-enhancing Choo-Choo, or are we going to insist that HART first commits to increasing quality service to transit riders at the lowest possible cost? HART says: “We’re in the business of connecting people” NOT the business of economic development.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
Hillsborough: The Crazy Quilt
At least Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has floated a number of city visions including “I am Tampa.”
Tampa columnist Steve Otto is credited with coining
“the Big Guava.”
“Cigar City” probably came the closest to an identity, until all the largest cigar factories closed down, although the city has done little to preserve these factories.
As for Hillsborough County, there is no vision of where it has been or where it is going.
Maybe “Crazy Quilt” best describes one vision of our county being just one square in the Florida High-Tech Corridor.
Hillsborough County is also made up of very different city swatches: the wanna-be urban center Tampa; the strawberry center Plant City and the who-knows-what Temple Terrace.
Hillsborough is also made up of various patches of unincorporated communities from Keystone to Ruskin.
But this Crazy Quilt of a county needs a common thread or two that might help bring it all together.
Not an advertising gimmick-idea like Florida’s “Sunshine State” but rather a County Commission that can articulate and inspire a working together of the various populations of Hillsborough County.
I have this crazy idea that if we all just put aside our petty differences and greedy aspirations, Hillsborough might be simply become known as “a great place to go to school; get medical treatment; to live, work and play”.
We just need the kind of civic leadership that we don’t have now, to help bring it all together.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
There is a draft study report that candidate Ken Hagan doesn’t want you to see until AFTER the elections.
The Number One factor reported as limiting Hillsborough County’s economic development and recovery is
“Civic Leadership.”
Since February 2009, candidate Ken Hagan has been the Vice Chair and senior BOCC representative on the Hillsborough County Economic Stimulus Task Force. On June 17, 2009 the Task Force Report included a number of recommendations. The Number One Recommendation was to “Develop and implement a detailed Economic Development Strategy Plan” to include an updated Locational Assessment, Cluster Analysis, Workforce Trends and Capabilities review.
Over a year later, with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, the Locational Assessment report is pretty much complete and in draft form. The Number One “Next Step” recommendation coming from the New Jersey consultants? Develop a Strategic Plan!
This next round of “study” includes identifying six target industries; figure out how to communicate with them and finally produce an outline on how to implement The Plan.
How many more years and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars do the taxpayers need to throw at this before the first job is created as a result of County Government activities?
The Locational Assessment says some good things about the economic strengths of Hillsborough County:
- It is one of the lower cost major markets in the U.S.
- It has a labor market capable of absorbing employment growth.
- It has a competitive advantage over the rest of the U.S. in financial operations, healthcare and office support.
- It has a relatively well-regulated labor pool.
- USF has a rising reputation.
- HCC compares well with other large metropolitan community college systems.
- It competes well with other destinations on personal costs.
- It has a warm climate year-round.
- It offers convenient airport and residential siting opportunities geared to mark requirements.
What is keeping Hillsborough County from getting out and staying out of recession?
“Civic Leadership.”
The consultant’s report says we need leadership to:
- Create an area personality or sense of specialness.
- Control taxes.
- Simplify the development approval process.
- Develop a centralized property inventory.
- Work with industry and the local military to promote economic development.
All is not lost.
Hillsborough has a lot going for it. We just need new leadership NOW;
not more studies.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Leadership, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Reviewers from the state Department of Community Affairs have objected to a proposed provision in Hillsborough County community plans that would allow individual property owners to
“opt-out” of the plans.
The Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission also had raised objections to allowing individual property owners to opt- out.
We even see Michael Merrill, Interim County Administrator objecting to the opt-out provision for property owners.
Yet here we have Half-Baked Wiener Hagan supporting not only
a Community Planning process which he says is “flawed”
but wants the process to continue
WITH the opt-out provision left in!
Now, why would candidate Ken Hagan want property owners and their consultant-developer-attorneys to be able to opt-out of a community plan?
It’s an election year. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Elect no wieners to Hillsborough County Commission.
Urban Dictionary: Wiener
“A wiener is a man who is just kind of an ass, very rude, not always very masculine, not quite a boy, but not much of a man.”
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus | Tags: Bass Pro Shop, County Commission, Florida, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Property tax, Retailing
Mr. Ken Hagan put a tax break on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot at the last-minute and without public input.
The original staff draft of the Ad Valorem Tax Exemption limited businesses eligible for the exemption to those listed on the Florida Enterprise QTI Tax Refund Target Industries List.
This list by the way expressly EXCLUDES retail, hotel and restaurants.
The latest version of the Tax Exemption proposed by candidate Hagan now contains the wiggle words “…the County COULD reserve the prerogative to approve a Property Tax Exemption for a…project OUTSIDE of those parameters…”
Political Candidate Hagan has lately been pointing to his “big deal” with Bass Pro Shop to locate a retail store here, but only if this tax break goes through for them. Note that retail stores like Bass Pro Shop are not eligible on the Florida QTI Tax Refund List and so, not eligible in the County’s first draft of the Tax Exemption.
Can it just be coincidental that retailer Bass Pro “could” then be eligible for a Hillsborough County tax break, where they were not otherwise, if candidate Hagan wasn’t touting Bass Pro as an example of what he will do for the next four years on the County Commission?
These are largely low-wage, part-time, no-benefits jobs we are talking about. The Tax Exemption was supposed to bring high-wage jobs to Hillsborough.
Do we really want four more years of these self-serving political shenanigans from Mr. Hagan, or do we want someone like Jim Hosler who will hold himself and others to a higher standard of ethics?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Tampa Choo-Choo, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail
Candidate Mr. Ken Hagan has two ideas for yet more taxpayer funding to attract business to Hillsborough County, both on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot:
- A Choo-Choo for downtown Tampa that is supposed to increase property values there and create low-wage service sector jobs.
- Another tax incentive program that gives tax money from already established companies and from residents, to out-of-town businesses.
Hagan would have you believe that Hillsborough is not, will not be competitive otherwise.
Consider what Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation has to say about Tampa and Hillsborough County:
With a low tax burden and competitive lease rates, an expanding port and strong demographic trends, it’s easy to see why Hillsborough County provides a healthy environment for businesses, large and small.
Tampa itself is among the nation’s “most-wired” cities and is one of the top ten for security-cleared professional jobs requiring technical, computer and engineering skills, a background in international affairs, intelligence and foreign languages.
What Others Say About Us
- A 2010 KPMG study ranked Tampa Bay as the most competitive large city in the United States when it comes to business operating costs. Reinforcing that, The Tax Foundation’s 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index ranked Florida, overall, as the fifth most business-friendly tax system in the nation.
- Ranked among the best business climates in the U.S. (#3), the state has become the nation’s fourth largest cyber state and tops Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News’s list of emerging hot spots. It is a national leader in growing the alternative energy industry, ranking fifth in the nation for number of start-ups (Business Xpansion Journal, Nov/Dec 2008).
- The area enjoys the distinction of being highly desirable for recruiting. Expansion Management Magazine ranked Hillsborough County in the top 20 of more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. for recruitment and attraction (May 2007).
- Moody’s Economy.com describes Tampa as Florida’s financial services capital.
Who to believe, that we need to add taxes upon taxes?
Never mind that we also already have these (and more) incentive programs in place:
Quick Response Training Grant (QRT)
Economic Development Transportation Fund (Road Fund)
Brownfield Redevelopment Bonus Refund
Enterprise Zone
Jobs for the Unemployed Tax Credit Program (JUTC)
Let the voters decide.
Related Articles
- Hillsborough County Jump Starts Home Loan (homeloans.org)
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Voter Support | Tags: Bass Pro Shops, County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Tax, Tax exemption
Taxpayers will be on the hook
Candidate Ken Hagan has gone out of his way to tout a proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot — property tax exemptions for companies that locate in the county saying that if the tax exemptions pass, Bass Pro Shops will build an outdoor equipment complex here.
Whoa, wait a moment there cowboy. The ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AD VALOREM TAX EXEMPTION PROGRAM RECOMMENDED GUIDELINES clearly state “…the businesses eligible for exemption will be limited to our targeted industries listed in Appendix 3.” Retail sporting goods stores are NOT on that list.
Oh, never mind that Commissioner Hagan has never held public hearings on this proposed tax break. Ask your self if YOU know any of the details of the program. One of the most glaring sections of the ballot measure is that:
“With BOCC approval of the recommended program criteria and processes, and upon voter approval, staff will coordinate with the County Attorney’s Office to schedule a Public Hearing for consideration of an ordinance which would govern administration of this program. Based on BOCC direction, a program application package will be developed to facilitate implementation as soon as possible after voter approval and adoption of the ordinance.”
In other words: only AFTER the voters approve the tax break program will The County decide how and who gets what tax breaks, and if the taxpayers money will be well-spent.
If you can’t trust the author of that tax-break ballot item (Ken Hagan) to know what is in the program, how can you trust him to properly administer it?
We rate Half-Truth Hagan’s “Bass Pro Shops” promise a Pants on Fire re-election “great-big-fib”.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, I-4 Corridor, Transportation, Voter Support | Tags: Brian Blair, County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Ralph Hughes, Taxation
So now we have Commissioner Jim Norman admitting that his biggest campaign contributor, Ralph Hughes contributed $500,000 with $100,000 from Norman’s wife to buy a $435,000 house together as an investment.
What happened to the $165,000 difference?
It appears that Hughes’ only “investment” was in getting Commissioner Norman to support things like tax-free construction zones which ultimately benefited Hughes’ company.
Do we see a pattern here? Mr. Commissioner Ken Hagan was also a major recipient of Hughes money & “mentoring” and coincidently perhaps, Hagan is pushing his developer-friendly 11th hour tax abatement program for development; a multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded road and rail construction programs; and a (so far) failed attempt to allow commercial construction in rural areas along I-4 using tax incentives and public/private funding to pay for infrastructure. Read that: taxpayer money.
Hagan is the last-man-standing of the three Hughes “boys”; with Brian Blair and now Jim Norman out. Do we really need more of the same? Hillsborough taxpayers deserve better.
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 