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: 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, Tampa Choo-Choo | Tags: County Commission, Downtown Tampa, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa light-rail
Choo-Choo for downtown Tampa
In a recent article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal: AAA transit poll veers slightly , Moving Hillsborough Forward Chairman Gary Sasso points to a couple of studies on anti-transit “myths”, one of them from Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
In one of their reports, Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis, Techniques, Estimates and Implications, Second Edition (2009) this transit research institute says:
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More research is needed to better estimate transportation costs under various conditions and locations.
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Transport equity and diversity appear to be significant values which deserve more research.
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Decision-makers need better information on consumer demands, such as the value people place on improved travel convenience and comfort.
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Research is also needed to evaluate the synergistic effects of combined planning decisions.
Why is this whole rail-for-downtown project being shoved down the throats of Hillsborough County taxpayers by the Tampa “power elite”?
Hillsborough County taxpayers are facing a vote on a $200 million/year sales tax increase. Shouldn’t we wait for better information before we vote to fund Mr. Commissioner Hagan’s Choo-Choo for Tampa?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Downtown Tampa, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail
Image via Wikipedia
A cold shiver ran down my spine as I read in today’s Tampa Tribune that 40 young people were recently invited to an advocacy group-sponsored wine event in Tampa to get tips on evangelizing about rail. David Singer, campaign manager for Moving Hillsborough Forward was quoted as saying “The real opposition is the uneducated voter.”
The pro-rail lobby has a private army of 100 volunteer speakers, trained to defend Hagan’s sales tax increase. Can we expect them to now show up in numbers at local events, wearing brown shirts perhaps, with colorful armbands?
“We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple terms. “
“We must recognize that bonding with others in one’s generation or society is the means by which values are strengthened and perpetuated. It is vitally important that we bond in such a way that the values perpetuated are our own. ”
From an Eric Heubeck essay, The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement published on the Free Congress Foundation’s website in 2001.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Downtown Tampa, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa light-rail
The pea is under which cup?
Hillsborough County elected officials and employees are desperately trying to convince the voters to increase the sales tax by 14% to fund Commissioner Hagan’s Transportation Task Force planned gift of a Choo-Choo for downtown Tampa.
Solution: all these County folk are saying they support:
- “Transit Oriented Development” (TOD) or
- “giving people transportation choices” or
- “walkable communities” or
- “increased use of public transportation” or \
- a “multi-modal transportation plan” or
- “increase our economic development opportunities” or
- “attracting business development downtown” or
- “moving more people faster” or
- “increasing property values around transit stations”
Do you think all these fine words don’t translate to
“vote for the tax increase”?
Listen carefully for anyone in The County saying that they support the MPO 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan. Part of that plan suggests a sales tax increase to fund it.
Support the Plan + Support New Taxes = Support the Referendum.
NO NEW TAXES!
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Downtown Tampa, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa light-rail
Jobs? How long can you wait THIS time?
Gary Sasso, chairman of Moving Hillsborough Forward, had his opinion published in the St. Pete Times today. In it he said a curious thing about rail:
“It will create tens of thousands of quality jobs.”
Apart from temporary jobs for out-of-town consultants and construction workers, he specifically mentions “…new jobs in service and retail…” This means that after construction is completed, the “quality jobs” that remain for Hillsborough County are store clerks, hotel workers and restaurant help: few of which are likely to be well-paid, full-time or come with benefits.
So when can residents expect these “quality jobs” to show up as a result of Commissioner Hagan’s downtown Tampa Choo-Choo? Not until years after the project is completed. Estimates are that it will take years of planning and as many as 10 years to build out. Businesses will only start to think about locating or expanding along the rail lines after the thing is up and running.
So, if you are expecting to get off unemployment any time soon, while you are paying a 14% increase in your sales tax; how long can you wait?
There are many other, better ways to get people back to work – NOW.
NO NEW TAXES!
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 