A Red Wave Hit Hillsborough: County Commission Flips Red and the $23B AFT Transit Tax Is Defeated

It was a Red Wave Tuesday in Hillsborough. 

Voters voted Republican up and down the ballot. They flipped a State Senate seat and the County commission. They defeated the $23 Billion transit tax - put on the ballot by the 5 Democrat commissioners. Voters sent a clear message they do not want higher taxes in Hillsborough County. 

Orange County Did So Why Didn't Hillsborough County Put a Clean Transit Tax Hike On the 2022 Ballot?

Orange County appears to have put a much cleaner, more clear and more accurate, according to what Florida State law (FS 212.055) allows, in their transportation sales surtax ballot language. It simply asks voters to vote for or against a 1%, 20 year sales surtax dedicated to transportation and transit improvement for uses authorized by law....as approved by the Board of County Commissioners.

Fiscal Insanity: All for Transportation Is A Tax Hike Scam to Bailout Financially Failing HART

HART is going insolvent and will go over the fiscal cliff soon. They want a taxpayer bailout. 

All for Transportation Sales Tax Is A Fraudulent Tax Hike Scam, Hold Incumbents Responsible in November

The 30 year $23 Billion All for Transportation (AFT) Sales Tax is a fraudulent tax hike scam.

Very Risky Business! 5 Democrat Commissioners Vote to Appeal Judges Ruling Throwing the AFT Sales Tax Off the Ballot

Tampa Centric 5 Democrat
county commissioners vote to appeal AFT ruling

A special BOCC meeting was called by BOCC Chair Kimberly Overman today at 5pm today. At the meeting, the Tampa Centric 5 Democrat commissioners voted to use taxpayer money to hire outside legal counsel and appeal Judge Moe's AFT ruling. 

Judge Moe ruled Monday from the bench to throw the All for Transportation (AFT) Sales Tax referendum off the ballot because it is misleading to the voters. 

Overman called the special meeting at 5pm, an hour before a 6pm commission meeting that had already been scheduled. 

The special meeting was noticed to the public that those who wished to speak would have 3 minutes to make their public comment. The County Attorney clearly stated that the 6pm meeting can start late, it just cannot start earlier than 6pm.

But the Tampa Centric 5 wanted to get the special meeting over as quickly as possible because they had already made their decision. Gwen Myers told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday the county was appealing:

Commissioner Gwen Myers said the county will appeal a judge’s ruling voiding the transportation tax referendum.

About thirty-three citizens had properly signed up for public comment expecting to have 3 minutes to speak. 

The 5 Democrat commissioners who consistently lecture about citizens having a voice, did not want to hear citizens voices at the special meeting. They voted to cut public comment to 90 seconds. 

The 5 commissioners punished the citizens who wanted to speak because Overman chose to schedule this special meeting, to discuss a very important issue, an hour before another meeting. 

The citizens who took the time to signup to speak were not at fault but the 5 commissioners punished them anyway. Horrible optics! 

About 10 people who signed up to speak did not speak after the 5 commissioners took half of the speaking time away. 

Kudos to Commissioner White for diplomatically bringing up numerous reasons why the County should not appeal. 

Remember White won his lawsuit last year that threw out the 2018 illegal AFT sales tax.

The 5 Democrat commissioners totally ignored White's pragmatic warnings and Pat Kemp and Harry Cohen are lawyers. 

The meeting became a circus as the 5 Democrat commissioners made emotional pleas, tried to paint themselves as victims and want to blame everyone else for the big messes they keep creating. Harry Cohen's loud rant was quite a show. 

Instead of making their case for appealing the ruling, the 5 commissioners made the case for their own incompetence and negligence. They are incapable of properly managing the County's $8.5 BILLION budget. 

 

So the 5 Democrat commissioners voted to spend more taxpayer money hiring more legal counsel and appealing the ruling. 

That money would be better spent filling potholes.

What the 5 Democrat commissioners are doing is risky business that could subject taxpayers to more litigation/lawsuits and another big refund issue.

Watch the meeting here.  

Commissioners Overman, Cohen and Smith are up for re-election.

Voters Beware!

More to come.

 

AFT's Special Interests Donors Call In Their Chits But Judge's Ruling Taints AFT Tax Hike So Take NO Risk and VOTE NO!

AFT Monopoly Men 

Monday the All for Transportation supporters struck out again. Circuit Court Judge Gaylord Moe ruled the All for Transportation (AFT) Sales Tax Hike ballot language is misleading and confusing to voters and struck the referendum from the November ballot. 

Now AFT's wealthy special interests donors are calling in their Chits.  

AFT's rich monopoly men, with money bags in tow, are wanting their donor favors returned and a "return on investment" of the donor dollars they have waged on Overman, Cohen, Smith, Myers and All for Transportation.

Yesterday Hillsborough County commissioner Gwen Myers told the Tampa Bay Times  the County will appeal the judge's ruling. 

We’re going to appeal this and ask voters to keep voting for this while it’s on the ballot now,” said Myers.

Myers, who has championed the tax referendum since her 2020 election to the commission, initially said she would consider scheduling a special election if an appeal is successful.

But Gwen Myers does not speak for all 7 commissioners. The county commissioners have not met yet to discuss the appeal issue and Florida Statute 212.055 requires all local sales surtax referenda must be held in a general election.

BOCC Chair Kimberly Overman released a statement yesterday calling for a special BOCC meeting for Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 5pm. Her statement yesterday, October 11, 2022, was incompetently dated August 4, 2022. 

Citizens can sign up to make public comment virtually or at the meeting tomorrow or send a written comment here.

Overman's statement claims:

We cannot afford to wait another 2 years to find relief for those who need these transportation improvements the most. 

We cannot continue with the status quo.

The status quo is the County being negligent, incompetent and not properly funding the County's transportation needs.

The damaging status quo is because Overman and the 4 other commissioners (Cohen, Smith, Myers and Kemp), who put the AFT sales tax hike on the ballot, eliminated the 2017 $840 Million 10 year transportation funding policy. 

The damaging status quo is because these 5 commissioners eliminated a 10 year  transportation plan funded by using the growth of existing revenues. 

Public safety and infrastructure are the top priorities and responsibilities of all local government. Roads are the largest infrastructure asset the County owns. 

Overman and the other 4 commissioners have failed to do their job. They have failed to properly fund a primary responsibility of county government.

These 5 commissioners prefer massive new tax hikes at a time of raging inflation instead of doing their job and making the hard budget decisions the rest of us must make everyday. 

What is sobering is all the special interests including Jeff Vinik, Darryl Shaw, Ron Christaldi and Tampa General, who have dumped thousands of dollars into Overman, Smith, Cohen and Myers campaigns. 

What is alarming is these wealthy special interests are financially supporting commissioners who have failed to do their job. The special interests would never run their own businesses or household budgets with such neglect and incompetence these 5 commissioners have for years imposed on the taxpayers of Hillsborough County.

The special interests refuse to hold the 5 commissioners accountable for their negligence. Instead they buy influence.

Money talks and now the special interests are calling in their chits. 

They want the County to waste your tax dollars to appeal Monday's ruling. 

Protect your wallet. Do not allow another illegal AFT sales tax create another AFT big huge refund issue. 

Taxpayers must NOT be put at risk of having illegal sales tax dollars taken from them AGAIN.

Take NO risk with the AFT sales tax printed on your ballot.    

Just Vote NO! 

Breaking: All for Transportation Sales Tax Ballot Measure Violates Hillsborough County Charter

The All for Transportation (AFT) Sales Tax Ballot Measure on the Hillsborough County November ballot violates Section 8.05 of the County's Charter. 

Section 8.05 requires that all County referendums include a Financial Impact Statement (FIS) in the referendum's ballot summary language. The FIS is not included in the AFT sales tax ballot measure. 

About That $23 BILLION Rail Tax On The Ballot: DO YOU KNOW?

It's time to scrutinize the $23 BILLION Rail Tax on the November Ballot in Hillsborough County. 

Just as we did in 2018, we will sound the warning again about the massive Bait and Switch Rail Tax do-over. The 2022 Rail Tax again massively overfunds HART - a transit agency with 2% ridership - who financially benefits the most from the tax hike.

HART's Finances Run Into the Ground by Same People Pushing $20-23 BILLION Rail Tax

Hillsborough County's transit agency HART is a fiscal mess. HART's governing board is responsible. And their solution to HART's fiscal mess they helped create - a massive new inflationary rail tax hike at a time when we are experiencing the highest inflation tax rate in 40 years.

Highest Inflation Tax Rate in 40 years 

Lawsuit Filed Alleging Hillsborough County Rail Tax Ballot Language is Unlawful

 A lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Hillsborough County by Plaintiff Karen Jaroch challenging the 30 year ONE PERCENT rail/transit tax ballot language on the November ballot. The lawsuit alleges the ballot language is unlawful and deceitful and should be removed from the ballot.

The lawsuit filed in the 13th Circuit Court is case #22-CA-007158. The Complaint can be found at the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Court website here by searching on the case number. The Complaint can also be found here.

The Complaint asks that the rail tax ballot language be ruled defective and the County and the Supervisor of Elections prohibited from placing the ballot title and summary language on the November ballot.

Hillsborough County's "Equity" Transformation: $18B Rail Tax, Remove Interstates, Race Conscious Solutions, Unconscious Bias, DEI Training, Bigger Bureaucracy and Ballooning Budget

Hillsborough County admits the Tampa Centric 5 Democrat commissioners put a rail tax on the November ballot. The 30 year ONE PERCENT (NOT ONE CENT) $18 BILLION rail tax is part of the County's "transformation" to use "Equity" in everything the County does and in all the County's decision making including transportation.

The Sierra Club Took Over the Hillsborough County Commission and They Are On the Ballot in November.

Activists and leaders with the Tampa Bay Sierra Club, Pat Kemp and Mariella Smith, sit on the Hillsborough County commission. The Sierra Club endorsed them both as well as Kimberly Overman.

Transportation Explanation: Inflation and Information

With their constituents struggling with skyrocketing gas prices, raging inflation, rising food prices, exploding rents and property taxes, the Tampa Centric 5 Democrat Hillsborough County commissioners (Kimberly Overman, Mariella Smith, Pat Kemp, Gwen Myers, Harry Cohen) put an unnecessary and egregious rail/transit tax on the November ballot. 

This is atrocious, appalling and totally tone-deaf. 

Record property tax revenues are flowing into Hillsborough County, city of Tampa  and to transit agency HART.

Hillsborough County still owes taxpayers $562 MILLION of the unlawfully collected illegal 2018 All for Transportation rail tax.  

Hillsborough County is about to hand YOUR tax dollars to engineering firm HNTB to fund a taxpayer funded CAMPAIGN targeting voters to vote for the Tampa Centric 5's $18 Billion rail tax boondoggle. 

We will continue deconstructing their nonsense and their fiscal irresponsibility, unethical behavior, disinformation/misinformation, false narratives and outright lies. 

First episode of Transportation Explanation is below (about 12 minutes). Direct link is: https://eyeontampabay.podbean.com/e/transportation-information-and-raging-inflation/

With Every Word They Say, Every Game They Play - We'll Be Watching the 5 Democrat Commissioners Focus on Tampa Rail/Transit Not Needed New Road Capacity

We are right again! 

Hillsborough County commissioners Kimberly Overman, Mariella Smith, Harry Cohen, Gwen Myers and Pat Kemp are the Tampa Centric 5 county commissioners. All five are Democrats. Overman, Kemp and Smith are countywide commissioners whose focus is the urban core of Tampa, not unincorporated Hillsborough where most of their constituents reside. 

The Tampa Bay Business Journal (TBBJ) article confirms this in their March 23rd post about the motion by Myers for a do-over AFT 2.0 30 year ONE PERCENT (NOT ONE CENT) $18 MILLION rail tax on the November ballot:

The motion was spearheaded by Commissioner Gwen Myers, who threaded the line between the commissioners looking out for unincorporated Hillsborough County's interests (Stacy White and Ken Hagan) and the Tampa-focused commissioners (Pat Kemp, Kimberly Overman, Mariella Smith and Harry Cohen).

As Hillsborough Pushes $18 BILLION Rail Tax Forward the Tampa Bay Times Admits AFT 2.0 Is To Fund Transit

Hillsborough County Commission Chair Kimberly Overman said the following at last Wednesday's March 23rd BOCC meeting as she pushed to put an AFT 2.0 do-over 30 year ONE PERCENT (NOT ONE CENT) $18 BILLION rail tax on the November ballot

"A transportation improvement plan that requires a single occupancy vehicle for a family to economically survive in this County is irresponsible and will NOT be a policy that will "allow" our communities to thrive, our businesses to thrive and is "in direct conflict to our responsibility towards equity."

Shameful! Hillsborough County Deceptive Transportation "Open Houses" Mislead the Public AGAIN To Push Another Massive Tax Hike Scam

Post by Dr. Jim Davison and Sharon Calvert

All taxpayers are being hit hard by raging inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. Hillsborough County has yet to refund one penny of the unlawfully collected $512 MILLION illegal All for Transportation tax back to the taxpayers.

Some Hillsborough County commissioners and County staff don't care. Those who want to raise taxes at this time are not compassionate people. 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and these commissioners want to unnecessarily burden Hillsborough county taxpayers with higher taxes. They want to unnecessarily burden struggling businesses with higher taxes.

Happy New Year Tampa Bay! Tampa Democrats REMOVE FDOT's Plan to Widen/Improve I-275 North of Downtown

Tampa Centric Five

Happy New Year Tampa Bay from the Tampa Centric Five Democrats on the Hillsborough County Commission. 

The Tampa Centric Five appointed themselves to Hillsborough County's Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) and sent their Happy New Year wishes for more traffic congestion in Tampa Bay. 

As they ironically expressed their concerns about "rapid growth" in Tampa Bay, they voted to ELIMINATE FDOT's plan to improve and add capacity to 10 miles of I-275 from downtown to Bearss Avenue. 

This FDOT I-275 improvement project has been in FDOT's plans for decades. The project has been in Hillsborough TPO's Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) for years and years as North Hillsborough and south Pasco growth has exploded...until the Tampa Centric Five Democrats appointed themselves to the TPO. 

Tampa Centric 5 Must Have No Say In AFT $521M Refund "Hot Mess" They Helped Create, Four Can Be Voted Out Next Year

All for Transportation "hot mess" Dumpster Fire 

The Tampa Centric Five Hillsborough County commissioners were staunch supporters of the unlawful All for Transportation Transit (AFT) $16B rail tax in 2018. Commissioners Pat Kemp, Kimberly Overman, Mariella Smith, Harry Cohen and Gwen Myers, all Democrats, aided and abetted AFT's shameful activity of putting an illegal rail tax hike on the ballot and misleading the voting public. 

The AFT Cabal Have No Shame: They Took Your Money Unlawfully, Want to Keep As Much Of The Illegal Tax Monies As Possible and Start Taking More

Those Who Lose Do Not Get to Choose - Winning Side Gets to Decide

The Refund Process 

The All For Transportation (AFT) cabal is a political clique of wealthy special interests, influential power brokers, political insiders, unethical bureaucrats, "friendly" media, and transit activists, who privately schemed to deceive voters in 2018. After losing the AFT lawsuit, the cabal is now scheming to try to keep as much of the illegally collected AFT tax monies as possible...as they push AFT 2.0 for 2022. 

Hillsborough County Commissioners: Rebate Illegal AFT Transit Tax with one Hand, Start Launch of AFT 2.0 Transit Tax Hike with Other Hand

 NoTaxForTracks (NTFT) issued a statement last week after the Florida Supreme Court threw out the unconstitutional and unlawful All for Transportation (AFT) transit tax hike in its entirety. NTFT requested that the AFT transit tax dollars illegally collected be given back to the residents of Hillsborough County.  

About $502 Million has been collected since January 1, 2019. The Florida Supreme Court did not issue a remedy for disposition of those funds. Wednesday, the Hillsborough County Commission agreed with NTFT and voted 6-0 to refund the hundreds of millions of AFT dollars back to their constituents. 

The commissioners did that because of what came next. Immediately after voting to refund the unlawfully taken AFT transit tax dollars, the county commissioners voted to start the process for putting AFT 2.0 on the 2022 ballot.