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: 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 County Florida, Ken Hagan, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail
Now THAT'S congestion!
Tampa didn’t even make it in the top 10 of congested cities.
Weekly hours of congestion: 85
Average speed during congestion: 14 mph
#2 – New York, NY
Weekly hours of congestion: 94
Average speed when congested: 11.4 mph
#3 – Chicago, IL
Weekly hours of congestion: 83
Average speed when congested: 11.1 mph
#4 – Washington, DC
Weekly hours of congestion: 32
Average speed when congested: 14 mph
#5 – Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Weekly hours of congestion: 43
Average speed when congested: 20.1 mph
#6 – Houston, TX
Weekly hours of congestion: 22
Average speed when congested: 13.2 mph
#7 – San Francisco-Oakland, CA
Weekly hours of congestion: 68
Average speed when congested: 19.6 mph
#8 – Boston, MA
Weekly hours of congestion: 43
Average speed when congested: 16.7 mph
#9 – Seattle-Tacoma, WA
Weekly hours of congestion: 33
Average speed when congested: 11.2 mph
#10 – Philadelphia, PA
Weekly hours of congestion: 45
Average speed when congested: 18.9 mph
Answer: ALL of these cities have rail transit systems.
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.
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, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, unemployment
JOBS NOW - NO NEW TAXES!
Today’s Tampa Tribune Michael Sasso article about “Bay area jobless rate keeps on climbing” should get us all thinking about what our elected officials were doing over the last three years while our jobs went into the toilet.
Take a look at what the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners has done for unemployment under the leadership of Commissioner Ken Hagan. Three and one-half years ago he formed a task force to make recommendations about the transit situation in the county, which was a good idea at the time. However, soon into that study, the housing bubble burst and along with it Hillsborough’s economy and jobs.
County unemployment went from 3.5 % to 12.5%
Ken Hagan’s task force continued to study transit and seemingly only as an afterthought mentions job creation, but then with jobs only occurring after the Tampa Choo-Choo is finished, five years from now.
This Transit Task Force finally came to the conclusion that the plan they developed should be funded by a 14% increase in the County sales tax equalling $200 MILLION per year. Hagan voted to recommend this to the BOCC and voted to put the tax on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot.
Not only will this tax increase be an added burden to the unemployed, it will be a job-killer for county small businesses. Businesses pay sales taxes on lease payments for commercial space as well as for equipment and for repairs and maintenance. These business will have to decide to eat the tax increase and maybe have to fire an employee or two, or pass the tax along to consumers who have no one to pass along their added sales taxes.
If our elected officials were serious about doing something about Hillsborough County’s skyrocketing unemployment and get the economy back on its feet, they should not be raising taxes now, they should be working on job creation NOW!
Maybe we need new elected officials in the County Commission.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Economic Stimulus, Leadership, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail, unemployment
The Tampa Tribune opinion today was that this recession is a numbers’ game.
Yes, jobs will be the main issue in the November election because jobs are the only solution to getting families out of poverty. They need good-paying jobs NOW, not tax increases.
In Hillsborough County we will soon decide if we want to increase our sales tax by about $200 million each year, mostly for a distant light-rail for Tampa.
In a letter to the editor today, John P. Baumann Jr. equates rail with jobs, but unless you are an engineer (or consultant), the unemployed can only look forward to swinging a pick-ax for the next six years, and thereafter work dead-end jobs in shops and restaurants. Since this recession started, unemployment has doubled.
What has Mr. Commissioner Ken Hagan, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners actually done to help people get back to work? He formed task forces and hired consultants and helped create no new jobs.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Pogo –
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.
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.
"Let the voters decide" 