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: Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Tampa light-rail
Support HART bus, not rail
Chairman Ron Govin is absolutely correct in today’s Tampa Tribune Views page that HART delivers on its mission:
“Our Team is dedicated to providing excellent customer service while building solutions to support Hillsborough County’s needs…now and into the future.”
CEO David Armijo and his executive staff have built the best bus transit service of its size in the United States.
The real problem for HART has been a BOCC who diverted 99% of the last half-penny sales tax increase away from public transportation.
Commissioner Hagan’s Transportation Task Force pretty much stacked the deck so that light-rail for the area surrounding downtown Tampa was the preferred solution, benefiting mostly consultants, developers and attorneys. By comparing light-rail with the most expensive bus service, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), it made light-rail seem not so much more expensive.
What HART and all the dedicated people who work there do best, is to provide cost-effective Plain Old Bus (POB) service, with some enhancements.
I believe that with the whole 75% of the proposed sales tax increase, HART could more than double bus transit ridership, at no cost to riders, for less than half of the total cost of light-rail.
Govin says they just need more time for a thorough analysis. I agree. Let’s push this whole tax increase issue back to the next election in 2012, which is not the end of the world.
Otherwise we could wind up voting for transportation funding that STILL does not let HART do what it does best: Affordable public transportation.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Ken Hagan, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tax
No new jobs from rail for 5 years.
Yesterday the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) held a public meeting where only about a dozen people showed up to talk about Commissioner Ken Hagan’s Transportation Task Force gift of a Choo-Choo for downtown Tampa.
St. Pete Times reported that the best HART’s chief executive officer, David Armijo could come up with was:
“There is no set schedule for the project. If funding sources [from taxes] can be secured and the project is approved [by voters] , it’s possible construction could begin within five years.”
5 YEARS? YIPES!
The people of Hillsborough are saying they want jobs now, and
NO NEW TAXES.
Isn’t anyone in County Government listening?
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 