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, Ethics | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Sign Wars erupted today at an early voting location. Creative Loafing broke the story.
It seems candidate Hagan didn’t like the public being reminded of his stand on honoring Condederate Memorial Day.
Taking matters into his own hands, Hagan reportedly removed the sign, with his own hands. We wonder if he got his hands dirty.
Interesting comments from both Hosler and Saul-Sena campaign camps is that their signs go missing while nearby Hagan signs remain. Coincidence?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Politics
Reading the Janet Zink and Bill Varian article today about Ralph Hughes’ influence on the Hillsborough Board of County Commission, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Who is left on the BOCC who might also have been (still being) unduly influenced by money, “mentoring” or other peccadilloes?
Let the voters decide.
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, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
With Commissioner Jim Norman now disgraced; with Commissioner Kevin White now disgraced; with other senior County officials either fired or put under a cloud of impropriety, how can Charmian Ken Hagan continue to be silent and offer no true leadership to the BOCC?
An ostrich with its head in the sand has a better chance of protecting the reputation of the rest of the flock than candidate Ken Hagan has in protecting what is left of the reputation of the Hillsborough Board of County commissioners.
There are far too many pressing issues confronting the taxpayers of Hillsborough to allow Hagan to continue to have any say in our county’s future.
Do we really want the King of D’ Nile in charge of our future, or do we need new leadership?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Three of these kids belong together
Three of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing his own thing
Now it’s time to play our game
It’s time to play our game.
Only Candidate Mr. Ken Hagan
has NOT YET been caught being naughty.
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: Economic Stimulus, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics, Taxation
King Hagan and his short notices
Mr. Commissioner Hagan is so intent on sneaking his Tax Exemption resolution onto the Nov.2, 2010 ballot that he is keeping it away from public comment.
On July 14, 2010 at a BOCC regular meeting he first proposed an off-agenda item that he called a Tax Abetment program for certain (unknown) new and expanding businesses for various (unknown) amounts and lengths of time.
On August 4, 2010 at a BOCC regular meeting he entertained an off-agenda item that he called a Tax Exemption program for “discussion” and “approval” to place this as a referendum on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot.
Not Commissioner Hagan;
not the BOCC;
not county staff;
not the voting public, have any details on how this program would be administered, monitored or measured for fiscal effectiveness. THAT will be decided AFTER the voters are to decide whether this is a good thing or not.
“Confound it, that’s the most unheard of thing I ever heard of!”
– King Leonardo –
Let the voters decide??????
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics, Sales tax, unemployment
Half-baked solution to unemployment
The respected Brookings Institution came out with a recent report Tracking Economic Recovery in 100 metro areas. The Tampa area ranked near the bottom at 89th with an unmployment rate of 12.1%; a three-year increase from only 4.3%.
What has Ken Hagan’s County Commission been doing for the last 3 years?
Commissioner Hagan’s Transportation Task Force studied moving people around and secondarily in the long-term (5 – 10 years) the creation of jobs, with nothing to deal with those who were and are unemployed, except to a push increase the sales tax burden on county residents and small business owners.
Commissioner Hagan’s I-4 Corridor Task Force studied turning a stretch of rural lands into a high-tech business park but failed to come up with an acceptable way to fund the needed infrastructure. Again, the employment benefits would be long-term, perhaps 25 years out there. The plan was rejected in a vote by the full BOCC.
Commissioner Ken Hagan’s Economic Stimulus Task Force is still studying what new training county residents might need in order to become competitive, sometime in the future; what kinds of industry we want to attract and where that new industry might be located. The only suggestion to come out of that task force so far was the I-4 corridor plan which was rejected. Ken is still studying the situation.
Ken’s latest program is an 11th-hour proposed Tax Abatement program that could give some business owners a free ride for up to 100% of their county taxes, for as long as 10 years. This will be on the November ballot, even though none of the details of how this program will be administered or the ultimate cost or benefits to the taxpayers. Hardly a fiscally conservative proposal.
The BOCC for the last three years has been distracted from dealing with the immediate unemployment needs of county residents. Instead they were focused on how to deal with improprieties by one of the Commissioners; a dysfunctional County Administrator, County Attorney and Internal Auditor; a declining tax base due to falling property values; and endless rounds of task forces.
County operating budget deficits have resulted in hundreds of county employees fired, with more yet to go. Hardly a good track record to dealing with unemployment.
It is not like Ken couldn’t have foreseen any of this, let alone do anything about it, as the problems rolled out in front of him.
We need people on the County Board of Commissioners who will not go tharn, like a dear being frozen in terror, caught in the headlights.
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 