U By Jim Bleyer In a text to a Hillsborough County voter two weeks before the November transit tax referendum, Jeff Vinik pointman Tyler Hudson virtually admitted that the now exposed scam is fraudulent. Once more Hudson, in responding to Charlotte Greenbarg’s accusation that promoters of the Vinik Tax were …
I By Sharon Calvert, (excerpts from Eye on Tampa Bay) Six Hillsborough County commissioners are intentionally putting taxpayers at tremendous financial risk and signing away the rights of their own constituents and future commission boards. County Commission Chairman Les Miller, a supporter of the $16 billion All For Transportation (AFT) …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay Can a hand-picked cabal, unaccountable to voters, earmark one dollar, let alone 16 billion, of public funds for projects that were created to primarily benefit the wealthy and influential? It’s a question that should be asked throughout Florida, not …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay The Tampa Bay Times discarded its journalistic ethics in reporting on the proposed Hillsborough County sales tax hike for transportation that was spearheaded by the newspaper’s primary benefactor, former hedge fund manager and developer Jeffrey Vinik. The Vinik Tax passed in …
By Jim Bleyer Pending legislation by a group of Oregon Legislators would eliminate a $150 million state appropriation towards a Major League Baseball stadium in Portland. It’s a blow to Portland’s hopes of luring an MLB team and a boost for competing cities, especially Las Vegas. The Tampa Bay …
By Jim Bleyer There is no shortage of Tampa Bay media lackeys that gladly genuflect for Jeff “Transit Tax” Vinik. “Vinik to relaunch asset management firm: ‘The fire still burns in my belly” bleated the headline dutifully penned by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. This would be …
By Beth Eriksen Shoup, Contributor Today marks the ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission ruling, striking down limits on independent corporate spending in elections. It also marks the anniversary of the founding of Move to Amend, a group that sprang up to fight corporate …
By Jim Bleyer The obsequious Tampa Bay media, never passing up an opportunity to genuflect to the local lords of professional sports, uniformly term the shrinking of Tropicana Field’s seating capacity as creating “an intimate fan experience.” The national press and fans of the Tampa Bay Rays know better: …
By Tom Rask, from the Tampa Bay Guardian “The referendum language was vetted closely,” Hillsborough County commissioner Kimberly Overman told the Tampa Bay Times earlier this month. Overman was speaking about the ballot language for the Hillsborough transit tax hike referendum that passed in the general election this …
By Jim Bleyer The abject failure of Hillsborough County to provide a sensible location and realistic financing for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium has emboldened two western cities that yearn for Major League Baseball. Both Portland and Las Vegas are rumored to be hastening plans for building state-of-the-art …
