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.
"Let the voters decide" 