By Jim Davison, Contributor The term “bridge to nowhere” conjures up many different images from short-sighted government planning to outright corruption. The term spans the entire spectrum of negative perception about government performance. We all know that bridges are built to connect two areas divided by some type …
By Jim Bleyer The Tampa Mayoral runoff Apr. 23 matching former police chief Jane Castor against billionaire David Straz will end with one sure loser: Tampa residents. Neither candidate excited the electorate with an anemic 20.55 percent primary turnout Mar. 5. Voters traditionally go to the polls in far fewer …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay All for Transportation (AFT), promoters of the Hillsborough County $16 billion transit tax, carpet bombed voters last year with glossy mailers claiming it had a transportation plan to cut traffic congestion over the 30-year life of the tax. The ballot …
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 All for Transportation (AFT) 30-year $16 billion transit tax referendum has created mass confusion, with the public questioning the viability of the program, the veracity of its advocates, and the motives of the corporate players and media entities that …
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 …
