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, 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: Ethics, Leadership, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida
All of us have likely heard the maxim, “Confession is good for the soul.” It’s an old Scottish proverb but there is a word missing. The proverb actually reads, “Open confession is good for the soul.”
Commissioner Jim Norman could have heeded this advice and thereby avoided the possibility of being rejected or removed by the Florida State Senate; facing the FBI and facing the IRS. Some never learn. But the possibility of learning from this should not be lost on the remaining members of the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners.
Look deeply within your self.
What things about your past behaviors would you NOT want to see as newspaper headlines?
This is not an easy task.
Ask Jim Norman.
He could have come clean on questionable links to Ralph Hughes before someone else brought them to light. The voting public would have forgiven him and sent him to Tallahassee with pride. A re-born statesman, instead of a politician under a cloud.
The Senate would have forgiven him.
The FBI would have forgiven him.
The IRS would have forgiven him.
So now the remaining BOCC members
each have your own choices to make.
Step out of church on Sunday and openly confess anything that would otherwise disqualify you for a career in public office.
Do it now, while you still have the love and support of your public.
Do it later, and face possibly having all that you have accomplished taken away in a flash of unwanted publicity.
Each of you must decide for yourself.
Trust to “let the voters decide”. We are a very forgiving people.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Electoral district, Gerrymandering, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics, Redistricting
The original Gerry-mander
When it comes to redistricting, who do you want on the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners: R’s, D’s or NPA’s?
Candidate Ken Hagan makes no bones about following the party line. This would seem to be his plan for redistricting, even if he is elected to District 5, county-wide. There are still R’s to protect in other single-member districts.
What Wikipedia says:
“Gerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation (redistricting) in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape.
Incumbents are likely to be of the majority party orchestrating a gerrymander, and incumbents are usually easily renominated in subsequent elections.
This demonstrates that gerrymandering can have a deleterious effect on the principle of democratic accountability. With uncompetitive seats/districts reducing the fear that incumbent politicians may lose office, they have less incentive to represent the interests of their constituents, even when those interests conform to majority support for an issue across the electorate as a whole. Incumbent politicians may look out more for their party’s interests than for those of their constituents.”
Sound like what we have now in Hillsborough County?
Is this what we REALLY want to continue under Hagan?
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: 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.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Ethics, Leadership, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa light-rail, unemployment
Ken Hagan presents his little Choo-Choo rascals
“Build it and they will come” is great fiction for a movie, but hardly a good reason to raise our sales taxes by 14%.
Financially strapped residents and businesses need relief NOW, not a Tampa Choo-Choo we can’t afford.
$200 MILLION per year in new taxes would go along way instead to fund some “back to work” programs. How many Hillsborough County College certificate program scholarships could we fund with that? How many County employees’ jobs could be saved?
The County operating budget is short $64 million this year, but NONE of the new taxes will go toward that. We either get fewer services or yet more taxes.
What is Ken Hagan and the Board of County Commissioners thinking?
Throw the rascals out.
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 