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 All for Transportation (AFT) created the 5-page tax-hike charter amendment that led to Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White’s lawsuit, case #18-CA-011749. AFT recently filed to be an “intervener” in the lawsuit, filed against the county and other parties receiving the new tax …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay After the $16 Billion Vinik funded rail tax passes, the Vinik bailed out Tampa Bay Times is now asking questions they should have been asking before the election. The Times began asking what happens to the 10-year $812 million road funding …
By Tom Rask, TampaBayGuardian Just as citizens vote on a 1% sales tax to fund transit in Hillsborough County, the county’s transit authority reported that its bus ridership is down 10.3% for the fiscal year that ended September 30th (FY2018). The steep plunge calls into question the “need” …
By Tom Rask, Tampa Bay Guardian Majority voter support for the proposed 14 percent hike in the Hillsborough County sales tax, already a dim possibility, has been dealt another blow from an unlikely source. If the statutorily required audit of the government agencies receiving the tax windfall was supposed …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay It should come as no surprise that voters and taxpayers are not funding promotion of the grossly misnamed All for Transportation (AFT) 30-year 14% rail tax hike. The Tampa Bay Partnership, leader of the local rail cartel, has been complicit with …
By Tom Rask, Tampa Bay Guardian Yesterday morning, a state agency told the Guardian that they did not have an audit report that was due for delivery to them five days earlier. Yet that same afternoon, the Tampa Bay Times obtained a copy of the report and published an article …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay Transportation planning and progress have been dysfunctional and elusive in Hillsborough County for over 20 years. After three failed sales tax initiatives, from the Committee of 99 to Moving Hillsborough Forward to GO Hillsborough, and multiple unfunded Long Range Transportation …
By Sharon Calvert (reprinted from Eye on Tampa Bay) There was a packed room at PSTA last Friday at the TMA meeting where Jacobs Engineering presented a draft of their regional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal to TMA members. The TMA members represent the MPO’s from Hillsborough, Pinellas …
By Sharon Calvert The Tampa Bay rail cartel is back, with their media accomplices attached. And this time it is for regional power and regional taxing. Our skepticism of the $1.3 million taxpayer funded Go Hillsborough campaign was right on. We speculated it would end up with another unnecessary …
