A Bigger Mess with Tampa Bay Next?

Tampa Bay taxpayers keep funding more transportation initiatives. The consultants love us… 

FDOT has recently launched another two year transportation initiative Tampa Bay Next. This is a FOUR County (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk) TBX replacement initiative on steroids - complete with new graphics! We know they're really serious this time! 

It's another taxpayer funded public outreach free for all AGAIN.

This latest transportation public relations endeavor is underway at the same time as the $1.6 million Streetcar study, the $1.5 million Regional Premium Transit Campaign, HART's TDP update and an effort to regionalize our MPO's. They all have taxpayer funded public outreach creating confusion, chaos and public fatigue on the transportation issue. Maybe all that is intentional…

But logic defies how FDOT would dole out $1.5 million for a THREE county (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco) regional transit campaign BEFORE this latest FOUR county initiative - cart before the horse. 

Governor Scott just signed Latvala's egregious TBARTA bill creating an unnecessary new FIVE county (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee) transit agency. But Scott also veto'd all of TBARTA's funding that got appropriated this session. 

What a mess! 

But here we are…

FDOT states the obvious on their new web site: "Tampa Bay has a traffic problem".

We agree. Probably everyone agrees.

But Tampa Bay has wasted too much time, too much taxpayer money and too much energy on FAILED proposals at the detriment of getting other things done to actually help relieve congestion. 

This new initiative is not just an update to the 1997 Environmental Impact Study (EIS) done the Federal Highway Administration requires for interstate expansion projects. FDOT says TampaBayNext initiative is a new program to modernize Tampa Bay's infrastructure and prepare for the future but leaves out Interstate expansion that must be done if we don't want gridlock in our future.

• Interstate Modernization
• Transit
• Bicycle/Pedestrian Facilities
• Complete Streets (most expensive street built)
• Transportation Innovation
• Freight Mobility

This is what our federally mandated/funded MPO's do. MPO's already do extensive public outreach for long range planning paid for by taxpayers. We have an MPO Board who approves the MPO's five year Transportation Improvement Plan. Why is FDOT stepping way outside its normal jurisdiction and duplicating what we already pay our MPO's to do? 

In addition, TBARTA has an updated regional Master Plan consistent with each county's MPO Long Range Transportation Plan. They also did extensive outreach. 

Our local transit agencies do outreach to update their 10 year Transportation Development Plans. 

And our local MPO's in coordination with our counties and Planning Commission develop our highway level of service (LOS) reports.

TampaBayNext.com sets no realistic boundaries or expectations and is another free for all like Go Hillsborough.  

The kickoff meeting for FDOT's TampaBayNext Community Working Group meetings was held on May 24th. The Eye was there. 

Instead of putting dots on a board or writing on a map like what was done with Go Hillsborough, FDOT is using professional "facilitators" from the Collaborative Labs of St. Petersburg College. That's the same collaboration group that gave us the 2010 Hillsborough rail tax referendum and the 2014 Greenlight Pinellas rail tax referendum - both overwhelmingly defeated. That is not a successful record of gaining so-called "consensus' on the transportation issue in Tampa Bay.

The kick off meeting was over represented by StopTXers. They posted talking points to show up and were there to push their agenda that transit is our greatest need, we need to demolish our interstates and demand that TBX be removed from our MPO's five year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).

To digress - Some sanity still exists, at least for now. The Hillsborough MPO voted 12-3 this week to keep the interstate improvement and expansion project in the TIP. Good - because:

• Expansion of our interstates have been in FDOT's plans for decades. TBX, or whatever name it is called, is funded by state/federal gas taxes we already pay - no tax hike needed. Those dollars are earmarked for highways, bridges and interstates and cannot be diverted to transit. 

• If the project is removed from the MPO's TIP, the state can and will hand the $6 Billion of Tampa Bay interstate improvement and expansion funding to other parts of the state. Jax, Central Florida and South Florida are all currently expanding their own interstates with managed toll lanes and probably drooling over any possibility of getting Tampa Bay's interstate funding. They are not stupid.

• If Tampa Bay rejects the FDOT funds, say goodbye to getting any more anytime soon and hello to gridlock. It would be decades before the state would consider handing such funds to Tampa Bay again. And with over a million people moving here by 2040, most bringing their cars, the result would be total gridlock and our surface streets becoming much more dangerous.

The "official" recording by FDOT of the May 24th meeting can be found here. Read through it. The basics for a kick off meeting were totally missing. No specific problem was defined, no goals were established and no timeline was provided. 

How can congestion relief not be a top priority of any ideal transportation system in the Tampa Bay region? But removal of urban highways aka demolish I-275 that 200K vehicles and a half million people use everyday is?  How can any ideal future transportation system include removing I-275 north of Tampa? That is extreme! Why would FDOT be considering such extremism?

This is what happens at free for alls that set no boundaries. StopTBXers are a vocal group but they represent a very small percentage of the millions who live in the four counties and use our interstates. 

The same artist is used at all these transportation gatherings to sketch a drawing during the meeting. Here is the picture of the drawing that was made from the 5/24 kickoff meeting. The picture confirms FDOT's latest transportation initiative is Go Hillsborough over four counties. And yes they are at it again - Costly light rail that voters consistently reject.

Drawing from 5/24 FDOT kickoff meeting

How much does all this cost and who and how would all this be paid for? Those silly little questions…

Since over 98% of us drive in Tampa Bay, where's congestion relief for vehicles? MIA in that picture.There is not one car/truck/vehicle in this picture except for a car with a caption "Car Optional". That is absurd! The urbanists want to demolish our interstates that a half million people use everyday and move Mayberry RFD to the urban core and have you pay for it. 

And stop using the term "choices" which is rhetorical and over used. Perhaps my choice is for Scotty to beam me up - can we include that too? The private sector is rapidly innovating to provide new services and the "choices" that people actually want and are willing to pay for. 

The millions who use our interstates in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco everyday know we need to fix our interstates FIRST. Most, if not all, of the 1.2 million people expected to move here by 2040 will bring their cars.

Be realistic. Billions spent on costly transit could never begin to relieve congestion. And we all will count the noses of which electeds willing to hand Tampa Bays funded TBX interstate expansion and improvement money (state/federal gas taxes we already pay) to another part of the state for them to wisely improve their interstates.

The amount of taxpayer money spent in Tampa Bay on transportation/transit studies, public outreach, reports, plans, public relations campaigns, tax hike referendums, meetings and rhetoric seems endless. 

Why? 

Because special interests, our local media, taxpayer funded agencies, unelected bureaucrats wanting to grow bureaucracies and some politicos, especially those eyeing a new big pot of money to dole out, keep trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. 

The same people keep pushing costly transit projects and tax hikes on voters who consistently reject them. So little or nothing gets done except enriching the same consultants over and over and over.

Unfortunately, FDOT District 7 has decided to join their games launching another taxpayer funded two year transportation charade.

FDOT District 7 will be getting a new Secretary since Paul Steinman recently resigned.

Whoever takes over that position needs to reset this free for all. It is not the responsibility of FDOT to duplicate what our MPO's already do. FDOT should exercise realistic boundaries so that expectations can actually be achieved.

Otherwise, Tampa Bay Next just creates a bigger mess.

Polk County Transit Blames Service Cuts on Referendum Defeat But They Knew It Was A Hard Sell To Begin With

For whatever reason, Polk County has had three transit agencies serving their county: Lakeland Area Mass Transit, Winter Haven Area Transit and Polk County Transit. Each of these transit agencies had been operating independently.

In 2010 Polk County put a half cent transit only sales tax referendum on the ballot. It was overwhelmingly defeated 68 to 32%. 

Since then, an effort has been underway to merge these three transit agencies into a single agency, Polk County Transit, to save money and gain efficiencies. They've already merged some activities such as consolidation of the Transit Call Center.

At the same time this merger activity was occurring to reduce costs, Polk County decided to put another sales tax referendum on the ballot last year asking for more money for transit. Shouldn't the merger and consolidation be completed first before asking taxpayers for more money? This time around they threw in a carrot of some roads with the transit and asked for a full cent sales tax increase. 

Roads was not the issue in Polk County. The commute time is about 25 minutes, right at the national average. Unlike Hillsborough County that is proliferated with failing, deficient roads, Polk has few F-rated roads. Polk County has already maxed out the use of the local option gas tax.

The 2014 MyRide referendum went down in a worse defeat than the 2010 referendum, 72 to 28%.

Now the Lakeland Ledger is reporting that there will be service cuts and personnel cuts to transit in Polk County. The Polk County transit Executive Director, Tom Philips, stated in this article:

The service reduction is the result of the failure of the My Ride/My Road sales tax referendum in November and the need to fund ongoing bus fleet replacements, Phillips said.

We remember that Mr. Phillips was being praised at one of the Hillsborough Policy Leadership Group meetings for all the public engagement and outreach he did for the referendum. Phillips was also brought to a HART board meeting to present his outreach effort.

However, Phillips and Polk County transit knew exactly what they faced at the ballot box. They took a poll in 2013, included the poll on their MyRide website, and this is what they found:

Polk County 2013 transit poll

The highest priorities were jobs and education. Only 4.3 % felt that bus and transit service had gotten worse over the last few years. Note that Polk County is a growing county whose population grew over 24% since 2000.

Some more information from their 2013 transit poll:

Polk County 2013 transit poll

Over 87% had not used transit in Polk County in the last two years and less than 18% thought it a high priority to expand and improve bus and transit service in Polk County. The  question asking the best way to provide additional funding for transit improvements should have been a warning to the transit agency about asking for a sales tax increase. Over 44% stated additional funding should come from rider fares and less than 15% said additional funding should from a higher sales tax.

With polling such as this, they knew they had a huge hill to climb to convince Polk County voters and taxpayers to pay higher taxes for transit, even throwing in some road money too.

Perhaps those polled knew more information than the transit agency thought. According to the 2012 National Transit Database, transit fare box recovery is very low in Polk County:

Certainly Polk County Transit can do better than only recovering 11% of their operating costs through their fare box. Hillsborough's transit agency, recovers twice as much at the fare box, Increasing the fare box recovery reduces the amount of taxpayer subsidies needed to operate. 

Polk County transit knew going in to last years referendum they were going to have a hard time selling the voters and taxpayers to pass it. Now they are stating they are cutting service.

Is Polk County doing anything to increase their fare box recovery? Those polled thought raising fares was the best way to provide additional transit funding. Will Polk County raise their transit fares that could perhaps mitigate their service cuts? Has Polk County done all their due diligence to ensure they are operating as efficiently as they can?

The overwhelming defeats of all the referendums in the Tampa Bay area to raise sales tax for transit, and the insight to voter sentiment in the 2013 Polk County transit poll, make a strong statement.

That is - voters are not going to vote to raise taxes on themselves for things they do not consider a high priority, may never use, do not see value in, is very high cost and would benefit very few.
  
And that sentiment can also apply to sports stadiums, baseball stadiums and other lower priorities.

Stuart Rogel Resigns but TBP Charts the Same Course

We have written previously about the Tampa Bay Partnership (TBP). TBP is an eight county organization in the Tampa Bay area that advocates for regionalism. They pushed the state legislature in 2007 to create Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA).  TBARTA has been totally ineffective since they were created and they are redundant and unnecessary.

TBP led the Hillsborough pro-rail effort in 2010.  They were the symbiotic twin of the pro rail PAC, Moving Hillsborough Forward, that raised $1.6 million for the rail initiative. It was defeated soundly 58-42%.

TBP helped created this regional One-Bay vision in 2010 "to create a shared regional vision to plan where future population and employment growth should occur based upon responsible land use, mobility, economic, and environmental sustainability". Some of their recommendations:

One Bay Vision Recommendations

Therefore, it's no wonder that TBP continued to push their rail agenda after the 2010 defeat in Hillsborough. TBP said they learned from their mistakes in 2010 and took the rail issue across the bridge to Pinellas to heavily support Greenlight Pinellas. 

Stuart Rogel, the CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership became the Treasurer for the pro rail PAC, Yes for Greenlight. Like 2010, TBP provided Administrative support for the pro rail PAC and helped Yes for Greenlight raise over a million dollars in support of the Greenlight rail boondoggle.

TBP also supported Polk County's sales tax transit referendum, My Ride/My Road, but did not seem to play as prominent a role in that referendum. Polk County soundly defeated a half-cent transit sales tax referendum in 2010. This time Polk County's referendum appeared to be a solution looking for a problem. The tactic seemed to be throw in some road money and keep things somewhat under the radar in the hopes the referendum gets passed. We certainly did not see the media attention to Polk's referendum as we did the constant media drumbeat for Greenlight. Polk's referendum also went down in flames 72-28%.

Four transit sales tax referendums (two in Polk and one each in Hillsborough and Pinellas) over the last four years were all overwhelmingly defeated under Stuart Rogel's leadership at TBP. TBP spent much time, resource, money and energy pursuing these sales tax referendums and supporting them. Would that time and energy have been better used on something else, something successful?

What is striking is the very day after the huge Greenlight defeat (62-38%), Stuart Rogel published this commentary, almost defiantly, in the Tampa Bay Times:

At the Tampa Bay Partnership, we support the development of a regional transportation system that will move people and goods throughout the area while connecting with our ports, airports and the rest of the state. And we are committed to this objective now, more than ever. 

The defeats of Greenlight Pinellas in Pinellas County and MyRide/My Roads in Polk County were disappointing for those of us who have worked for years to improve transportation in the Tampa Bay area. The voters have spoken, and we need to learn from and understand their choice.

Never before has such a broad-based regional coalition come together for an endeavor like this. And nothing could be more representative of what the Tampa Bay Partnership strives for every day — uniting Tampa Bay and advocating for our interests as a region.

The voters have spoken numerous times now and they have said NO to the TBP rail/transit agenda.

Every transportation survey in Hillsborough County, including the one below done by the MPO right after the 2010 defeat, confirms roads are the highest transportation priority in Hillsborough. The only roads Rogel mentions is our interstate highways. What about the rest of our roads? Hillsborough County has thousands of lane miles of roads and we can't fill our potholes.  

MPO Survey after 2010 rail defeat

The broad-based coalition Rogel references included elected officials, taxpayer funded agencies and special interests that would benefit from the tax increase. But the TBP coalition obviously didn't include the voters and the taxpayers.

Then last Wednesday it was reported that Stuart Rogel was resigning. The Tampa Bay Times reported

Rogel, 60, made $458,965 (emphasis mine) in 2012 even as the group's revenues decreased to just over $2 million. In the latest fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the group's revenues had risen to $3.8 million. The partnership, which was created by local business leaders in 1994 to market Tampa Bay as a single metro region, had been on the losing end of a number of recent campaigns, including mass transit initiatives in Pinellas and Polk counties.

The Tribune reported

Rogel said Friday the decision to resign was his own, based on the best interests of his family and the partnership and not on the Greenlight Pinellas failure or on anyone else’s assessment of his performance. 

On the transportation initiative, he said, “We did everything we set out to do. We raised almost $1.2 million in a very difficult market with all the other races.”

Is raising money for bad transportation initiatives what they do? Do TBP's investors think there are better uses of TBP's resources?  

TBP's investors can be found here.  Ten of the twenty-seven $50K donors are taxpayer funded entities, including Hillsborough County and City of Tampa. Nine of the thirty-four $25K donors are taxpayer funded entities, including Hillsborough County Schools and Tampa Hillsborough EDC.  More taxpayer entities contribute at the $10K or $5K levels.

How are those tax dollars spent? What is the return on investment to the taxpayer? Are any of those tax dollars used by TBP to push these referendums to raise our sales tax for projects we don't want or need?

According to this article, concerns citing disappointment with Rogel were made in 2012

Local public relations firm president Bill Carlson told the Tampa Tribune he wonders if the Tampa Bay Partnership has accomplished its goal of creating a brand for the region and building political clout.

After Rogel's recent resignation, he and TBP's Chairman Brian Lamb sat down with the Tampa Bay Times to talk about the transition and TBP's future. The interview was published in the TBT last Friday with a title "Tampa Bay Partnership leaders chart a new course". 

When asked if there's a surplus of economic development organizations with all the Chambers and the EDC, Rogel answered that those organizations play different roles and then stated,

We are the only voice for this region.

That is not true.  We have TBARTA, the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, the MPO Coordinating Chairs, the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area Leadership Group (TMA), the International Council of the Tampa Bay Region, our Tampa Bay local state legislative delegation and all the Chambers and EDC's. We bet there are more organizations who also provide a voice for the region but certainly TBP is not the only voice for the Tampa Bay region.

The irony, however, is when questioned about any changes to TBP's priorities, Lamb responded

I'll point you to the comments made in our annual meeting. We made it very, very clear we are not changing direction.

We are staying the course in our priorities and there won't be any material deviation.

Tampa Bay Business Journal recently did an online survey asking what TBP should focus on. Only 33% think TBP should continue to focus on issues such as transportation and baseball. Most of the rest who responded think TBP should stick to marketing the region or they think TBP is now irrelevant.

TBBJ survey on what TBT should focus on

Four soundly defeated transit referendums in four years. Instead of charting a new course, it appears TBP leaders are charting the SAME (failed) course. That will only cause their irrelevance to grow.

The Enemy is Reality: Voters and Taxpayers Fed Up

On Tuesday, five Florida counties soundly rejected sales tax referendums, including the Greenlight Pinellas rail boondoggle and transit related referendums in Polk County and Alachua County. Citrus County and Hernando County had infrastructure related sales tax referendums that were also defeated.

How badly were all these initiatives defeated? They ALL went down in flames.
Greenlight Pinellas - Defeated 62-38%
Polk County - Defeated 72-28%
Alachua County - Defeated 60-40%
Hernando County - Defeated 56-44%
Citrus County - Defeated 75-25%

In addition, a sales tax referendum in Martin County (just north of Palm Beach County) was narrowly defeated by 83 votes and is going to a recount on Saturday, that many expect the defeat to hold.

Here's a picture of how bad Greenlight Pinellas was defeated - 248 of 299 precincts voted NO. Even downtown Clearwater, one of the end points of the light rail, voted No.

Pinellas County votes a whopping NO
to Greenlight Pinellas 62-38%

What do all the overwhelming defeats mean?

Is it a strong indicator of distrust and skepticism voters and taxpayers have today?

Is it a strong indicator that our current elected officials are not spending what they already have wisely, effectively and on our highest priorities? Do voters and taxpayers think government at every level is overreaching and spending our tax dollars on things they shouldn't be?

Most of the referendums were comprehensive, attempting to raise additional revenues for multiple issues. Have voters and taxpayers simply seen too many failed "comprehensive" referendums, where elected officials push the "something for everyone" carrot to get the costly referendums passed, and then they end up over promising and under delivering? Do voters and taxpayers lack the confidence there will be appropriate oversight, discipline and accountability with spending these additional tax revenues, especially when spent on numerous issues rolled into a single tax?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up watching taxpayer funded entities like PSTA spend almost a million dollars of taxpayer monies advocating for a sales tax few will benefit from?  Are voters and taxpayers fed up watching PSTA spend years of their time and resources pushing for Greenlight and higher taxes instead of focusing on their bus service? Are voters and taxpayers simply fed up with taxpayer funded entities using their bully pulpit and our tax dollars with a one-way message advocating against the taxpayer?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up watching the collusion of taxpayer funded entities and special interests groups push higher taxes for projects that benefit the few - them?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with cronyism and what appears to be a circle of money between elected officials and special interests?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with being told we must hand over more of our tax dollars in the name of "economic development" that in reality feeds our tax dollars to special interests?  Are voters and taxpayers fed up with being told we have to continually subsidize development?

We already hand lots of our tax dollars every year to entities pushing "economic development".  What success have we gotten in return? What is the actual return on investment as far as economic prosperity and growth from using all these tax dollars? Can anyone measure?

Some of those entities turn around and use the monies they receive to advocate for higher taxes. Is something wrong with this picture?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up watching elected officials and taxpayer funded entities like PSTA ignore and mock those oppose them?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with lies and deception used to push for higher taxes?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with those continuing to push referendums requiring federal debt dollars for costly solutions we do not need nor can afford?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with the continued emphasis on taxpayer funded solutions to all our problems?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with the lack of common sense, fiscally responsible solutions because someone's beholden to deep-pocketed special interests?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with the too much one-sided, biased reporting and editorializing by local media favoring these costly referendums?

Are voters and taxpayers fed up with the "powers to be" ignoring "We the People"?

It's somewhat amusing to hear Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, who also chairs the PSTA board, state that he was surprised by the outcome of Greenlight Pinellas.

The $1.2 Million pro rail Greenlight PAC was doing polling because they were paying a polling company according to their campaign finance reporting.  If things were going "their" way, we would have heard about it. They knew Greenlight was going down, they just didn't know how bad.

The opposition to all these referendums was obviously broad and deep.

The enemy is NOT No Tax For Tracks, the Tea Party or anyone else who voted against all these referendums.

The enemy is reality.

The defeats were NO surprise. Just think about the questions above.

Yard Signs and More On Your Taxpayer Dime

As was recently reported, state senator Jeff Brandes asked the FDOT to investigate how PSTA is spending taxpayer dollars on it's Greenlight Pinellas "education" campaign.  The FDOT Inspector General we understand is now conducting an investigation.  

So what does Greenlight Pinellas do?  They double down and are now asking you to pick up Greenlight Pinellas yard signs

Greenlight Pinellas doubles down on their advocacy

Since when were yard signs part of an "educational" campaign? Common sense says yard signs are used to advocate and encourage support. These advocacy activities are what the privately funded campaigns are expected to do - not taxpayer funded agencies.

Let's review Greenlight Pinellas's so-called "education" campaign activities:

1)  Taxpayer dollars are spent on trinkets, including buttons, pens, refrigerator magnets, chip clips, bead necklaces and goodie bags.  

2)  PSTA CEO Brad Miller speaks at the private Yes for Greenlight advocacy campaign's kick off meeting on PSTA time and dime standing right next to a big sign stating "VOTE YES" on Nov. 4th.

3)  PSTA CEO Brad Miller admits he provides a one-sided campaign that provides no "educational" information regarding any cons or negatives about Greenlight Pinellas.  He doesn't think he needs to as if there are no negatives to the plan.

3)  PSTA hires Tucker Hall - a PR firm.  Why are PR firms hired? To influence and persuade public opinion.

4)  PSTA spent $400K of taxpayer dollars last year lobbying the Pinellas County Commissioners and targeted groups to get the referendum on the ballot.

5)  PSTA plans to spend at least $400K more this year on their advocacy campaign that  now includes yard signs.  

6)  PSTA is using their own bus wraps to advertise (encourage support for) Greenlight Pinellas for which they are not getting commercial revenue.  PSTA denied No Tax For Tracks who wanted to BUY their own bus wraps which would be revenue to PSTA.

Greenlight Pinellas got lawyered up last year and their lawyers state that as long as they simply do not say "vote for" or "support" - hey its ok to spend gobs of taxpayer dollars encouraging folks to "vote for" the referendum without using those silly little words.  Actions always speak louder than words!

 

Florida has electioneering laws. If the investigation of Greenlight PInellas finds no wrongdoing or ethically challenged behavior then it's time for Florida to do what other states have done and pass a bill to stop the abusive use of state and local governments using our tax dollars against us the taxpayer. Arizona passed such a bill last year to:

...stop state and local governments from campaigning with taxpayer dollars. 

Unfortunately, courts have essentially read these laws to prohibit only electioneering that “unambiguously” urges a “yes” or “no” vote. As a result, government bodies often skirt the law and use public resources to broadcast one-sided messages about ballot measures. 

HB 2156 requires government bodies to be truly neutral with taxpayer dollars. Government may inform the public on ballot issues, but publicly sponsored forums or events must be purely educational, with an equal opportunity for the presentation of all viewpoints (emphasis mine). 

...close the loopholes on public-resource electioneering bans.

If Greeniight Pinellas is not violating the intent of our electioneering laws, they are violating the spirit of the law and making a mockery out of them.  

It is the responsibility of privately funded campaigns to sell their side. It is the responsibility of the county commissioners, who vote to place any referendum on the ballot, to sell it to their constituents. If the county commissioners understand the referendum enough to put it on the ballot, they should understand it enough to sell it to the voters.  

It is not the responsibility of the transit agency to use taxpayer dollars to be the county referendum's marketing firm. It is the responsibility of the transit agency to honestly provide the technical information regarding the specifics of the plan. As SaintPetersblog recently reported, PSTA/Greenlight Pinellas should be answering why they continue to show the rail line running along adjacent CSX tracks when PSTA knew since 2012 (2 years ago) that CSX said No. Isn't eminent domain a major issue that must be considered? Did PSTA think they could get away with NOT informing voters they may need to use eminent domain to gain right of way? Eminent domain can cause huge delays and higher costs for any project. After spending $4 million on an Alternatives Analysis, PSTA should have had a solid plan. Do they?

What else is PSTA not being honest about? Their map continues to state there will be a future train across the Howard Frankland by 2024. This is a false narrative as the Tampa Bay Business Journal recently reported. It is more likely we will have autonomous vehicles using highly utilized managed lanes before any high cost, taxpayer subsidized train could ever be built across the bridge. 

Greenlight Pinellas falsely implies a future train over Howard Frankland by 2024

Polk County has a transportation referendum on the ballot in November and its transit agency also wants taxpayer dollars for an "education" campaign.  Were they watching what PSTA/Greenlight Pinellas has been getting away with?

County commissioners will be asked Tuesday to contribute $125,000 toward an educational campaign for this year’s sales tax referendum to fund transit and road projects. 

The request by Tom Phillips, executive director of Polk Transit and the Lakeland Area Mass Transit District, caught commissioners by surprise when he brought it up during this morning’s agenda study session.

Phillips plans to use radio and television ads to promote (emphasis mine) the referendum.

But Dantzler said he hasn’t heard a big outcry from the business community about the need for more transit to get employees to work. 

Dantzler, who is a commercial real estate broker, said, despite what some people claim, the issue of transit service has never been raised by any of his clients looking for property in Polk County. 

Is Polk County's referendum activity murky too? Is it legal to use taxpayer dollars to air ads that promote a referendum to raise taxes? 

The Polk County referendum is split 50% for transit and 50% for roads. It appears all the media ads are promoting transit.

Polk County apparently had some concerns because they only approved $50,000 for the "education" campaign according to the Lakeland Ledger:

...how to use the $50,000 commissioners approved to educate the public about the My Road part of the referendum. 

Phillips last week asked commissioners for $160,000 to fund a My Road educational campaign, but commissioners, responding to public criticism over spending any money on the referendum, approved the smaller amount.

This abuse of taxpayer money must stop or it will be used elsewhere - in our own backyard - in the very near future.

Transportation Chaos

The debate about transportation, rail and transit is getting hotter and hotter everyday in the Tampa Bay region. There are transit referendums on the November 2014 ballot in Pinellas and Polk.  There's a steady drum beat from the rail cartel (pro rail politicians, taxpayer funded agencies and special interests) for another rail referendum in Hillsborough. 

In 2010 there were transit referendums on the ballot in Hillsborough and Polk. Hillsborough had a comprehensive referendum that included rail and Polk had a transit only referendum to expand their bus service. Both referendums went down in flaming defeats, 58-42 in Hillsborough and 62-38 in Polk.

Now comprehensive sales tax referendums are on the November ballot in Pinellas and Polk. Pinellas wants to raise sales their tax 14% to expand bus service and build a light rail from Clearwater to St. Pete. Polk wants a 14% sales tax increase to fund roads and expand bus service.  

When the power brokers placed a stadium only sales tax on the Hillsborough ballot in the early 1990's, it was defeated.  But the local powers to be came back and gave us the Community Investment Tax (CIT) as a "something for everyone" tax that passed. That tax was supposed to fund road improvements for 30 years but now it's gone.  Our county commissioners borrowed against the future revenues of the tax by 2007.  The county moved our CIT dollars around faster than we could figure out where those funds were actually going. We're paying the CIT tax until 2026 but it's only to pay back the borrowed funds.  

Is Polk attempting something similar?  Tweaking their 2010 referendum to include roads for messaging purposes to help get their transit tax passed?  It may not be working.  According to this recent Lakeland Ledger article Is The Sales Tax Referendum In Trouble In Polk County?

Judging from comments I’ve heard and seen, the proposed Polk County sales tax referendum planned for the November ballot may be a hard sell. 

What’s proposed is a 1 cent increase in sales tax. The way it was originally proposed, half a cent would go to transit. The other half cent would go to road and bridge project’s. 

Here’s why:
Lack of support for transit is certainly part of it (my emphasis).

The referendum has created so much chaos in Polk county where citizens are distrustful that according to the Ledger article, one county commissioner recently proposed 

Then last week Commissioner George Lindsey proposed shifting money from transit to road building for the first five years of the tax’s life even though a 50-50 split is what referendum supporters have been selling for the past year.

This change to the ballot language will be discussed at the February 4 Polk county commission meeting.  What a mess.

Both Polk and Pinellas are going to wage a publicity campaign to get their respective referendums passed. When Tom Phillips, Director of the Polk transit agency spoke to the Tiger Bay club last October, the Lakeland Ledger reported 

To build support for the transportation referendum, Phillips said he has been speaking to civic and political groups all over Polk County and is working with other supporters on an advertising campaign (my emphasis) designed to sell transit to Polk's voters.

Tom Phillips, Director for transit agency in Polk County 

Yesterday the Tribune reports that Pinellas's PSTA is on another spending binge to use tax dollars to "sell" their flawed product. 

After spending $400,000 promoting the Greenlight Pinellas mass-transit plan last year, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority has earmarked another $150,000 for a new educational campaign and may spend more in the run-up to the November referendum.

The information campaign will be in addition to a privately funded advocacy campaign called Greenlight Yes, which will be launched Friday at the Pinellas Realtor’s Association. Realtors and construction firms are expected to pour up to $1 million into the push for the referendum to pass.

PSTA CEO Brad Miller said there will be coordination between the two campaigns (emphasis mine), both of which are expected to be directed by Tampa public relations firm Tucker Hall. He is scheduled to present details of the education campaign to PSTA’s board later this month, which could include increasing the budget for the campaign.

According to the The Tampa Bay Times, Ronnie Duncan, chairman of  taxpayer funded TBARTA, organized Greenlight Yes.

Organized by Ronnie Duncan, chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, or TBARTA, the campaign is going by the name "Greenlight YES."

Brad Miller publicly admits his taxpayer funded agency will "coordinate" with the pro rail Greenlight Yes campaign and the chairman of Taxpayer funded TBARTA is helping to organize the pro rail campaign.  As a taxpayer, are you outraged? Is this coordination even legal? At the very least, it is unethical. In 2010, we watched the blatant "skirting" of our electioneering laws in Hillsborough. This activity needs to stop. Is that the intent of our state electioneering laws? If it is, then don't we need to reform those state laws?  Our state legislators are up for re-election in 2014. Ask your legislative candidates running in your district if they would support a bill to reform our electioneering laws to reign in this collusion, coordination, corruption and cronyism.

The ballot language in Pinellas does not state PSTA's property tax will be eliminated. Taxpayers are simply asked to "trust" that will happen.  Does that sound a bit like "You can keep your healthcare"?  The existing PSTA property tax may or may not be eliminated. If it is eliminated it could be brought back at any time in the future.  Comforting huh?

In Hillsborough, the transportation issue has at times looked like a "three ring circus" (Webster's Dictionary defines three ring circus: a place with a lot of busy and confusing activity.)  The Transportation Leadership Policy group has been meeting since July of last year. This committee, consisting of the county commissioners and mayors of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City, has meandered all over the map. Why? Because a specific problem statement was never defined. 

The county website for this initiative Transportation for Economic Development provides links to the archived meetings, houses some presentations and provides a 50,000 foot level vision and strategy.  Finally at January's meeting some detailed data was presented that looks to begin to specifically define some problems. What took so long? 

Without a specific problem statement nor goal defined, there appears to be two views of the purpose of this committee. About half the members of this committee seem to believe its goal is to identify key economic spaces, then determine transportation solutions to connect them - a continuation of the previous Economic Prosperity Stakeholder Committee (EPSC) work tying in transportation. The other half of this committee appears to believe its goal is to identify transportation solutions (or transit solutions as some members tout) that they believe will drive economic development. At times, these two sub-groups appear to talk past themselves.

Governance was brought up at January's meeting and out of the blue Kevin Beckner proposes to restructure HART to manage county transportation projects.  The Tribune reported:

Hillsborough County leaders are drawing up plans to remake the HART bus system into an expansive agency that can oversee construction of countywide transportation projects and spur economic development.
Changes being contemplated for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority include a larger board with expertise in economic development and the authority to build roads and rail and create new bus routes (emphasis mine).

The Tribune takes liberty with including rail as if there's a plan for rail in Hillsborough. There's not!  HART manages our local bus service and their 10 year Transportation Development Plan approved late last year supports expanding bus services.  There is no rail component in it. 

Mayor Buckhorn provided insight for why HART was being nominated to manage transportation improvements - it's the agency that can accept federal rail funds. Also proposed was adding economic development as a responsibility of some restructured, super sized, super spending HART agency consisting only of elected officials. An agency consisting only of elected officials managing a huge bucket of transportation dollars should raise a red flag for potential cronyism and corruption. Economic development should not be the responsibility or our local transit agency. 

Let's be realistic.  HART deals with transit, not transportation. They operate and manage our local bus system.  They do not manage roads, bike paths, sidewalks or economic development. With managed/toll lanes coming in the future, tolls which are user fees paid by vehicle users, must go back into road improvements NOT diverted to transit. 

And the Eye just reported about some power brokers proposing  election rigging a March 2015 rail referendum to avoid county voters and stack the deck with city voters. We're sure the rail cartel would love that.

Tom Phillips, Polk county's transit agency director, wants that new transit revenue as the Ledger reports

Phillips said the proposal comes at a time when a successful transit system in Polk County could fit into a regional transportation system that includes the SunRail commuter rail system coming from the Orlando area and light rail that may be coming from the Tampa Bay area.

SunRail coming to Polk County?  Guess Polk is considering it according to this Ledger article

The prospects of expanded passenger rail service becoming part of Polk County's future transportation network will be the topic of a public forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Lake Eva Complex. 

Polk transportation planners and local officials have discussed investigating the feasibility of extending the Sunrail line — if it is extended to the edge of Poinciana — into Polk County to Haines City, which has not had regular rail service since the 1970s.

How will that be paid for in Polk county? Another tax increase? Light rail coming from Tampa Bay to Polk?  When will that happen?

Adding to this mess is federal dollars to fund new rail systems are dwindling at the same time older, legacy rail systems are in dire need of major rehabilitation. Greenlight Pinellas requires almost a billion dollars of federal grant money.  What happens when they don't get all those dollars?  Local taxpayers are on the hook.

What does this all mean in Tampa Bay?

Transportation chaos!  But it is orchestrated chaos.