Monday, July 18, 2022

An $18 Billion Rail Tax, Accident Prone Trains and 2022 is NOT 2018

The same people who lied about the illegal 2018 rail tax are now pushing the $18 Billion 2022 rail tax. They call it a "moderate" investment and refuse to call it what it is - a TAX. 

These are the same people responsible for why $562 MILLION of unlawful tax dollars was illegally collected. Those funds are still have not been refunded to the TAXPAYERS in Hillsborough County.

How can these people be trusted? 

We already have two of the country's most accident prone "death" trains in Florida -  street level rail lines Brightline and SunRail that cause many accidents and create congestion. 

The $18 BILLION rail tax forces taxpayers to hand HART transit agency, with a ridership of 2%, $8 Billion to fund street level rail in Tampa. Is it fair for taxpayers in unincorporated Hillsborough to fund Tampa rail? Who wants more accident prone congesting creating "death" trains?  

These same people are confident that since voters voted for the illegal rail tax in 2018, voters will vote for the rail tax in 2022. Are they stuck in 2018 believing they they can mislead voters again?

But we're not in 2018 anymore.

And 2018 is NOT 2022!

2 comments:

  1. How can we call them death trains when all of the deaths are from people who drove past DO NOT CROSS markings? Seems like a personal responsibility Republican like you would look there more than the train

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    1. You have a point in looking at some of the rail deaths as a lapse in personal responsibility, but can’t the vast majority of car on car or bicycle or pedestrian be looked at the same way. Intoxicated, distracted, speeding and ignoring safe practices are all lapses in personal responsibility but we blame the car. Data suggest a lack of government maintenance of roads, sidewalks and bridges lead to many of the traffic fatalities and injuries, but you never see that quoted. Isn’t that a lapse of personal responsibility? According to the National Transit Data Base, fatalities involving buses and heavy rail transit are about ½ those for cars when compared to passenger miles traveled. Light rail is double the fatality rate compared to car travel in passenger miles traveled. I would google this just so you know. Is ignorance a product of a lapse in personal responsibility? Will transit deaths and injuries be made as important as cars deaths in Vision Zero. Will lack of government maintenance ever be a part of it? Read for yourself. https://www.makeroadssafe.org/understanding-the-link-between-unsafe-road-conditions-and-car-accidents/ https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/56825

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