Hillsborough County Blows Through All Its Skyrocketing Growth Revenues, Increases County Bureaucracy by 61%

Guest post by Dr. Jim Davison 

Hillsborough County citizens are well acquainted with this time of year as being the start of hurricane season in Florida. It starts every year on June the 1st. We are given estimates of how many and how intense the storms will be. We are urged to get our homes ready and to prepare in case one of these natural disasters hits the area. All good advice.

Beginning about one month before hurricane season there is another season that starts every year. One that can be costly and deadly to taxpayers and it is man-made. 

It is the “Budget Season” for local municipalities and the County. 

The "Budget Season" is a closely choreographed period-of-time. Like clockwork, the Hillsborough County Administrator Bonnie Wise kicked off the Fiscal Year 2024 season at a BOCC workshop on May 10, 2023. No public comment was allowed.

The Budget Shell Game In the Twilight Zone at County Center

Did the taxpayers of Hillsborough County once again get the wool pulled over our eyes?

We posted here about Commissioner Higginbotham's transportation funding plan that passed on September 8th. It drastically reduced the amount of money going to fund our neglected roads and transportation needs over the next 10 years from what Commissioner Murman's proposal would have funded.

What occurred:
As part of Higginbotham's transportation funding plan, $35 million would go to transportation in FY2017. 

How is the county funding the new $35 million of transportation funding? 
With $14.1 million of reprioritized DEBT and only $10.6 million from new revenues.

And while the county is funding transportation with new debt, they are syphoning off $10 million of our new revenues to fund an untested $30 million impact fee buyback scheme that benefits developers.

And we've gone through ANOTHER budget cycle where the commissioners have refused to appropriate the $23 million BP oil spill settlement money that has no restrictions on its use. It should be going to our greatest funding gap and need - transportation!

And County Center thinks we're supposed to break out into a happy dance?

How did it occur?

First, Higginbotham would not have proposed $35 million go to transportation in FY2017 if he had not already discussed his plan with County Administrator Mike Merrill. The specifics for how the $35 million would be funded was not disclosed when the plan was discussed at the September 8th BOCC meeting or at the budget public hearing that same evening. 

Higginbotham's plan initially included mobility fees as a funding source. Luckily, Commissioners Beckner and Murman stopped that funding shell game by removing mobility fees from the plan before it was approved September 8. 

The funding was disclosed at the eleventh hour last FY2017 budget public hearing held on September 15th. Again, poor Governance, there was no time to react when the budget had to be approved that evening for the new fiscal year beginning October 1. 

Source of funding for $35 million of
transportation spend in FY2017

What a Surprise! 

Almost half (over 40%) of the FY2017 $35 million transportation funding is re-appropriated DEBT from the FY2016 budget.

Where did this reprioritized debt come from?

The FY2016 budget earmarked $46.5 million of debt financed projects, including $16.8 million for redevelopment projects. (Note the parks and service center debt financed projects are capital expenditures for which we asked for the operating expenses and were told by the county the operating expenses are TBD - bad budgetary practice - but a post for another day)

Always skeptical of such nebulous development projects, we attempted to get information about them from County Center.  No one at County Center nor any county commissioner could provide any details about these projects. Because there were none. This earmarked debt was for "ghost" redevelopment projects that did not exist so the county never borrowed any of the $16.8 million in FY2016. 

We don't know why county commissioners approve debt for projects they know nothing about or that do not exist. However, the already approved earmarks can be used as a holding place to fund something else.

Voila!

At the September 15 budget public hearing the county disclosed they how they complied with the new transportation funding policy. The county re-appropriated $14.1 million of the $16.8 million of DEBT financing earmarked in FY2016 for those redevelopment "ghost" projects to transportation. Since only  $10.6 million of new revenues for FY2017 is going to transportation, more new debt is funding transportation than new revenues. 

We were told Higginbotham's plan was an enhancement to Murman's proposal?

Hmmm….Reprioritizing debt is considered an enhancement?

Again the choreography done behind the green curtain was perfectly orchestrated.

The debt maneuver was already planned because Higginbotham's proposal includes new financing as a new revenue source and the plan stated:

If the policy is adopted effective for the FY 17 budget, first year policy compliance could be maintained by requiring that $12 million of the currently appropriated Redevelopment Program be designated for transportation uses in Redevelopment Pilot Project Areas.

Actually $14.1 million, not $12 million was re-appropriated from the redevelopment ghost projects to transportation. 

But who would've known or fully understood Higginbotham's plan thrown out at the eleventh hour? The public was notified of the proposal via the agenda sent out by the county on a Friday afternoon before the long Labor Day weekend. We all know about data dumps on Friday afternoons, especially before holiday weekends - most folks are focusing on the holiday weekend. 

While the commissioners removed the $30 million of impact fee buybacks from the transportation budget, that money is still appropriated in a non-departmental bucket. 

Lo and Behold $10 million of the $30 million impact fee buybacks scheme - that benefits developers - is funded with new revenues. Only $10.6 million of new revenues in FY2017 is going to our #1 issue with the biggest funding gap - transportation - that benefits us all. Can't make this stuff up…..

Chart presented at September 15 budget public hearing

When our roads and transportation needs have been neglected for years, spending $30 million in FY2017 for impact fee buybacks is outrageous and irresponsible.

The county will fund an impact fee buyback scheme with new revenue growth at the same time the county is funding our #1 issue transportation with new debt. 

How more backwards and upside down can things get with our county budget? 

The commissioners should demand a monthly update on the status of the impact fee buyback program. If it's not successful within 6 months, start re-appropriating those funds to transportation projects. 

There has to be some enforced accountability instead of lack thereof.

The irony of all this is amazing. 

The commissioners agreed in June to appoint a citizens committee to review and vet Murman's transportation funding proposal. It was apparent they wanted another "set of eyes" looking at the plan. But the committee was never established and the effort vanished into thin air. 

Instead, Murman's proposal was only reviewed by County staff who have an entrenched bias to maintain status quo and maintain their control over the entire budget. At the August 10th transportation workshop, Staff presented faulty revenue numbers low-balling the 10 year revenue stream estimates and half truths ridiculously predicting doom and gloom about Murman's plan. It was all very theatrical.

Subsequently, we get thrown the curve ball of Higginbotham's plan at the eleventh hour when no one had sufficient time to fully review or vet it. 

So much for the county commissioners really wanting another "set of eyes" but the county bureaucracy looking at any transportation funding plan.

To recap, the direction the commissioners gave County staff was to pursue using new growth revenues within our existing growing budget to fund our roads and transportation need. The chart below was presented as part of the FY2017 budget planning.

That is not what we got. 

What we got is a budget shell game.

What we have is a convoluted budget mess with no limits to where growth revenues in our ballooning budget can be spent - bigger bureaucracy, new baseball stadium, pork projects, special interest handouts, more parks, etc.

We are being led right back to the bloated budget era we were in prior to the recession. 

The trust issue with County Center continues to looms large and over two-thirds of those polled in 2015 said the county must do a better job of spending money it already has. 

We have been requesting for years that the county reprioritize our ballooning budget to start appropriately funding our roads and transportation. 

But has County Center turned into the Twilight Zone?

Only in the Twilight Zone of County Center would requests for reprioritizing our budget equate to reprioritizing debt that was previously appropriated for "ghost" projects.

Only in the Twilight Zone of County Center would anyone think taxpayers should do a happy dance when the county uses more debt than growth revenues to fund transportation in FY2017.

Only in the Twilight Zone of County Center is spending $30 million of taxpayer money in FY2017 on some untested impact fee buyback scheme a higher priority than funding our roads and transportation needs that have been neglected for years.

Is it time for those operating in a different dimension in the Twilight Zone at County Center to encounter a reality check?

Transportation: Taxpayer Victory But Lots of Room In Budget To Do Better

It was a long day at County Center last Thursday. There was a regular Hillsborough County commission meeting during the day and the first county budget public hearing regarding FY2017 budget in the evening.

We want to thank Commissioner Murman for leading the effort to fund transportation within our existing budget. Without Murman championing her plan for a dedicated and committed transportation funding source using our growth revenues, we would still have no transportation funding. Murman's leadership, together with strong support from Commissioner White got us to where we are today.

Finally, the county is using our existing budget to fund our roads and transportation needs. We've been requesting they do that for years as our revenues have been going up and up and up.

While Murman's proposal got substantially changed, the end result is a victory for the taxpayers of Hillsborough County.

Let's recap what happened.

At the June 9th sales tax hike public hearing, the commissioners agreed to pursue Murman's transportation funding proposal to dedicate and commit at least a third of our new growth revenues to transportation. They had also agreed to appoint a citizens committee to review Murman's proposal and that effort somehow vanished into thin air.

We previously posted here that the commissioners discussed Murman's proposed ordinance for a TIF like concept that would provide a dedicated funding source for transportation at the August 10th Transportation Workshop. Commissioner Higginbotham led the effort at that meeting for the Board's decision to bring Murman's proposal back to the Board in the form of a Board policy rather than an Ordinance. That was already a compromise that took some teeth out of Murman's proposal because a Board policy does not have the same discipline of enforcement that an Ordinance has.

Therefore, Murman asked for the Board policy language be brought to the next BOCC meeting scheduled a week away on August 17th. The Ordinance language had already been drafted by the County Attorney's office.

It was astounding to hear County Attorney Chip Fletcher say he could not reformat the Ordinance language into a Board policy format in time to bring it back to the commissioners at their very next BOCC meeting on the 17th.

It is beyond belief that Fletcher's County Attorney's office could not reformat Ordinance language already drafted into Board policy format in a week. The size of staff at the County Attorney's office is huge. They are so big that they farm out their resources and county legal services to other organizations - a post for another day.

Therefore, Murman's transportation funding proposal as a Board policy would have to be addressed at the following BOCC meeting not scheduled until after the Labor Day Weekend on September 8, 2016. September 8th coincidentally was the same day as the first evening budget public hearing was scheduled.

Either the public hearing should have been delayed or the BOCC meeting conducted the day before on Wednesday which is its normal meeting day. Making big budget decisions hours before a budget public hearing is again poor Governance by the County, especially when it could have been handled differently.

Once we heard Fletcher make his statement forcing the delay, we knew the fix was in. Unelected bureaucrat County Administrator Mike Merrill, who has no policy making authority, clearly displayed his annoyance of Murman's proposal at the August 10th meeting. It was clear he opposed Murman's plan.

How dare the county commissioners, who are elected to make policy and provide oversight for the county budget, take control of any part of the budget away from our unelected County Mayor???

What we anticipated played out and it was perfectly orchestrated behind the green curtain.

The choreography, which probably began after the June sales tax hike public hearing, concluded with Higginbotham's plan suddenly thrown out just prior to the Labor Day weekend. The public, of course, was already focused on the long holiday weekend.

How was the public notified? The county distributed the agenda we received on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day at 1:48pm that included the following item:

1:45 PM    F-1    Consider enhancements to the transportation funding plan proposed by Commissioner Murman to provide greater financial certainty of the availability of future
transportation funding. (Commissioner Higginbotham)

We were able to get a copy of the plan on Tuesday, after Labor Day, from Commissioner Higginbotham's office. The plan can be found by clicking on the F-1 blue hyperlink on the online agenda (if you have your browser preferences setup appropriately) or the plan can be found here.

There was barely time for anyone to digest Higginbotham's plan. Why was this change done at the eleventh hour and the same day as the first budget public hearing?

Higginbotham's proposal substantially changed Murman's proposal and we will address the changes in another post. It greatly reduces the amount of our growing existing budget that will go to transportation over the next 10 years and does not provide a dedicated funding source. It does not address limiting the size and scope of county government to continue growing and growing AGAIN as our revenues climb. This is the predicament the county put themselves in prior to the recession.

Transportation is the #1 issue in our county. The county spent over 3 years and $1.35 million of our county tax dollars telling us that. It is unfortunate that this Board once again refuses to commit a dedicated funding source from our revenue growth for transportation.

Higginbotham's plan will increase transportation spending in FY2017 by $35 million. But what are the taxpayers getting for that?

At the public hearing the same evening, we found out. $30 million of our entire FY2017 transportation spending is going to developers for impact fee buyback credits NOT transportation projects. On page 28 of the Recommended FY2017 budget is the Budget Overview and the very top item is the impact fee buyback.

$30 million of FY2017 transportation funding going
to developers NOT transportation projects

This is outrageous. Who can defend that impact fee buyback credits should be included as part of our transportation spending? Especially when the county has neglected our roads for years.

The county should not be spending our tax dollars on an impact fee credit buyback program to begin with. If there is a truly a market for impact fee credits, than let the free marketplace handle it - not our tax dollars.

Sensing there is a public backlash to this buyback program benefiting developers, the commissioners asked county staff at the August 10th Transportation Workshop to go back and find another way to fund these buyback credits.

That request vanished into thin air too.

Merrill builds a huge amount of slack into our county budget each year. He could have found the funds necessary somewhere else if this program is so important but he did not. We're left assuming that the slack slush fund must be available for other things - pork projects, subsidies and handouts when needed - instead of funding a primary responsibility of county government, our roads and transportation.

Taxpayers did get a Victory last week and we would not be where we are now without Commissioner Murman leading the way, but there is tons of room for improvements.

And the first improvement must be to remove the $30 million going to impact fee buyback credits from the FY2017 transportation budget.  That $30 million must fund much needed "real" transportation projects.

This is a no brainer if the commissioners are truly serious about funding transportation NOW.

We Need More Honesty, Not Fear Tactics at County Center

As we posted here, the taxpayers got a Victory recently as the Hillsborough County commissioners finally took action to approve using our existing growing budget to fund our roads and transportation needs.

This action will be implemented through a Board policy, not an ordinance that would have greater teeth. Therefore, this will only be a Victory if the county commissioners ensure and force county staff to strictly follow the Board policy each year.

We have concerns, though, because at the August 10 Transportation Workshop, County Administrator Mike Merrill clearly showed his annoyance at some commissioners who were  justifiably questioning and challenging him. Merrill used fear tactics to paint a doom and gloom picture distorting the reality of our budget and our existing growing revenues. 

Merrill even left out 20% of the county revenues in his budget impact presentation. While his math (or lack thereof) was questionable, the intentions were clear. How dare the county prioritize its budget to fund transportation first. 

(In other words - We need our growing revenues to grow the county bureaucracy, pay for a new baseball stadium, more parks, more pork projects and more hand outs to special interests.)

What the county bureaucrats presented at the August 10th workshop had holes in it, included half-truths and some outright distortions. Their tactics used in an attempt to obstruct the county from prioritizing its budget was appalling. These tactics need to stop now. Trust is an issue with County Center and trust must be earned back. We must have honesty down at County Center. 

Jim Davison, a doctor who lives in New Tampa who has been involved with the transportation issue for many years made a public comment at the August 17 BOCC meeting. Davison has spent his own time scrutinizing the county budget. His comment is below and can also be found at 54:34 in the August 17 BOCC meeting video on HTV.

GOOD DAY, COMMISSIONERS, I’M HERE TO MAKE A FEW COMMENT REGARDING THE WORKSHOP LAST WEEK AND CONGRATULATE YOU ON INCHING FORWARD. 

THE ADMINISTRATION HAD SOME STARTLING FIGURES AND ASSUMPTIONS THAT I CAN'T ALL ADDRESS IN THREE MINUTES. BUT I WOULD APPLAUD THE ADMINISTRATION FOR INCLUDING A 3.5% GROWTH FACTOR IN THE SALES TAX IN THEIR MODELING. 

IF THAT NUMBER HAD BEEN APPLIED TO THE SALES TAX AND THE TRANSPORTATION REFERENDUM YOU WERE CONSIDERING, THE REVENUE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN $3.5 BILLION OVER 30 YEARS THEY WOULD'VE BEEN $5.9 BILLION, A SMALL MISTAKE. 

THE INFLATION RATE THAT WE USED IN THE MODELING IS NOT USED BY MOST EXPENDITURE LIMITATIONS LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. THE INFLATION RATE THAT IS USED IS THE CPIU, THE REGIONAL CPIU WITH THE TAMPA ST. PETERSBURG INFLATION RATE FOR ALL URBAN CONSUMERS. AND IT'S DONE THAT WAY FOR OBVIOUS REASONS. 

I DON'T HAVE TIME TO ADDRESS THE MODELING BUT TO ASSUME THE FIRE AND THE SHERIFF GROWTH WOULD BE UNLIMITED OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS IS LUDICROUS. DURING THE RECESSION, THE METRICS FOR THE SHERIFF CHANGED AND THEY WERE LOWERED. THEIR BUDGETS DID NOT INCREASE. CRIME WENT DOWN.AUTO ACCIDENTS WENT DOWN SO THE ENTIRE METRIC SYSTEM HAS TO BE CHANGED AND LOOKED AT MAKING SURE THE SAFETY OF THE PEOPLE ARE PROTECTED. 

AND THE ANTI DILUTION CLAUSE I MEAN THAT'S REALLY SEARCHING FOR A REASON NOT TO DO THIS. IT'S A MATHEMATICAL FORMULA. THERE WAS NO MATHEMATICS PRESENTED, AND I'M SURE YOU HAVE IT, AND BUT THE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHERE THE COUNTY IS ON THEIR BORROWING. THEY SAID THEY NEEDED REVENUES TO PAY FOR THE BORROWING. WELL, IF YOU LOWER THE BORROWING, YOU DON'T NEED AS MUCH REVENUES. IT'S JUST A SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL FORMULA AND YOU DON'T NEED CONSULTANTS TO TELL YOU THIS.

YOU CAN ACTUALLY PICK UP THE PHONE, CALL FITCH, CALL MOODY, CALL STANDARD & POOR'S AFTER YOU GET THE PLAN TOGETHER WHEN YOU HAVE TIME BECAUSE THE CONSULTANT SAID THIS WOULDN'T BECOME A PROBLEM UNTIL FURTHER OUT YEARS IN THE PROGRAM. SO THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TIME TO CONSULT FITCH AND MOODY AND SAY YOU KNOW THIS IS WHAT WE’RE DOING, THIS IS WHY WE'RE DOING IT, IS THIS GOING TO AFFECT US. 

I CAN SHOW YOU COUNTIES IN THE UNITED STATES WHOSE REVENUES DROPPED TO 2% WHO STILL RETAINED A TRIPLE A RATING FROM ALL THREE, AND THERE ARE COUNTIES IN THE UNITED STATES THAT HAVE FAR MORE RESTRICTIVE TAX AND EXPENDITURES LIMITATIONS THAT HAVE TRIPLE RATINGS SO THIS IS A HERRING, BUT THAT'S UP FOR YOU TO DECIDE. 

BUT I CAN TELL YOU PEOPLE WANT THEIR BOND RATING PROTECTED BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE EXPENSES AND HOW THE COUNTY WAS GROWING BEFORE THE RECESSION. WHEN THE COUNTY WAS HIRING ONE OUT OF EVERY 100 PEOPLE THAT WAS MOVING TO THIS COUNTY. WHEN WE WERE THE SECOND LEADING EMPLOYER IN THE COUNTY. WE DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO THAT. SO PLEASE GO BACK. GOOD LUCK TO THE ADMINISTRATION.

According to the County's latest Comprehensive Financial Annual Report for FY2015 (CAFR), Hillsborough County is the fourth largest employer in the County (behind Hillsborough County Schools, MacDill and USF). The CAFR states the County was the second largest employer behind the Schools in 2006 when the economy was humming.

The county became bloated when revenues were furiously flying in and no one was watching the hen house. The county had absolutely no incentive to be efficient as they could easily move money around and hire as many people as they wanted. 

As our revenues are going up and up and up, we cannot afford to grow local government and the bureaucracy again - while continuing to neglect our roads and transportation. 

We need a fiscally responsible local government not a bloated one. 

The way to stop another bloated bureaucracy is to prioritize our budget, reign in our spending and have the fiscal discipline to fund our roads and transportation first.

The commissioners must get this transportation funding Board Policy done on September 8.

Because taxpayers demand no less.

No More Budget Shell Games - Fund our Roads and Transportation Needs Now!

The county commissioners held a Budget Workshop July 28. The Eye was there. The Workshop was opened to public comment and a number of citizens, including myself, requested the county move now on implementing Commissioner Murman's proposal to use the growth revenues in our existing ballooning budget to fund our roads and transportation needs. 

The dynamics of the Budget Workshop was quite telling. Commissioner Hagan kept insinuating cuts would have to be made for such a plan. That is almost laughable. It does prove some commissioners and unelected bureaucrats do not want to prioritize our ballooning budget, unless, of course, it's to fund a new baseball stadium for another wealthy sports team owner.

Everything cannot be a priority. If everything is a priority then nothing is a priority. That is fiscally irresponsible.

Such an attitude is what forces Hillsborough County taxpayers to continue funding pork projects, lower priority items, and subsidize wealthy special interests BEFORE funding our roads and transportation needs.

County Administrator Mike Merrill brought up a concern about our reserves and our AAA credit rating. According to the budget presentation given at the Workshop, the county has been dipping into our reserves the last few years to fund parks, fire stations, service centers, nebulous economic development projects - while holding our road funding hostage.

We do not remember hearing this concern during any of those previous budget cycles. Page 25 of the Recommended FY2017 budget states:

Our reserve funds remain stable, and Hillsborough County remains well positioned to excel in meeting the needs of our residents and our business community. 

So which is it? 

If Merrill is suddenly concerned about our reserves affecting our bond rating, then why did he put the county in such a position to begin with?

Decisions still must be made regarding how the $23 million one-time BP settlement windfall, that has no restrictions on it use, will be spent. Some commissioners want to use the funds for transportation which has the biggest funding gap in our budget. Others prefer the money be used for environmental purposes or for our stormwater infrastructure. 

The FY2017 budget dishonestly includes $30 million of taxpayer money to buy back developer's impact fee credits as "transportation spending". This buy back scheme that benefits developers represents 3/5 of the entire transportation spending for FY2017. That is nonsense. The games being played with our tax dollars must stop.

Merrill is a professional at magically pulling money out of his rabbit hat when he wants to.  

We were at the April 13th Community Transportation Plan and Mobility Fee Workshop where the impact fee buy back program was presented to the county commissioners. Merrill and his staff showed how easy it was to "find" or "reallocate" tens of millions of existing budget dollars to fund this buy back scheme. 

At the same time Merrill and his staff have been telling the public for years there was no money for roads. Outrageous!

The county commissioners need to revisit this impact fee buy back program. Either get rid of it and let the actual free marketplace work or consider using the $23 million one-time BP oil spill money to pay for them so taxpayers aren't on the hook for funding another scheme benefitting special interest developers. 

Then the county can honestly use that $30 million Merrill "found" to fund real transportation projects.

There is another BP oil spill settlement the county expects to receive that will have restrictions on its use while this settlement has no restrictions on its use.

Merrill astonishingly revealed at the Workshop that he can start a procurement process for a project that has not been approved by the commissioners and budgeted for. Perhaps that explains how Parsons Brinckerhoff got their million dollar blank check no bid contract procured so fast for the crony Go Hillsborough campaign. That is not good governance.

We have watched a "go along to get along" county commission for too many years. The commissioners have been led by unelected bureaucrats with little or no questions asked, for way too long. 

It was refreshing to see some commissioners pushing back on the unelected bureaucrat's agenda. Both Commissioners White and Murman are to be commended for their comments and actions taken at the Budget Workshop.

The county should not be addressing flagged items at this Workshop. There has not been one budget public hearing because too much time was wasted on two sales tax hike public hearings. White and Murman want to start addressing our transportation issue now and get to work on actually getting something done. Kudos to them.

The poll done by the Go Hillsborough campaign last April highlighted the issue of trust and confidence for how the county spends what we already have. 

Poll questions regarding trust and current spending
Click to enlarge

County collects enough already – no need to raise taxes – do better job of spending money we already have:  69% agree with 46% strongly agreed

We cannot trust politicians to spend new tax money on transportation problems as they promise – they will divert the money as they did the CIT:  69% agree with 42% strongly agreed  

This should have been a big red flag to the county commissioners. When over 2/3 of voters polled agree there is a lack of trust and there is no need to raise taxes, no sales tax hike was ever going to pass.

The sales tax hike is dead. The rubber has hit the road and we must pursue a new direction. 

Our existing budget cannot be used as a shell game to continue funding everything else under the sun except our roads and transportation, a primary responsibility of local government. 

Thankfully some commissioners understand that and want to move on to Plan B. Other commissioners, addicted to a sales tax hike, appear to be in some kind of denial.

The key to start funding our roads and transportation needs now within our existing growing budget is getting Commissioner Murman's funding proposal approved at the Community Transportation Plan Workshop to be held on August 10th at 1:30pm. 

This meeting will be open for public comment. Weigh in by attending and making a public comment in support of Murman's transportation funding proposal or by emailing the county commissioners here. 

Time to break away from failure.

Time to stop using our budget as a shell game to fund everything under the sun but transportation.

Time for the Chamber of Commerce and our business community to get behind Murman's proposal if they are truly serious about starting to solve our transportation problem. 

Time for our local media to wake up and accurately report what is going on with our county budget because they have been asleep at the wheel. 

Time to put our roads and transportation needs FIRST in our growing budget.

Time for the County to pursue success not failure.

 We demand it!

We Refuse to Be Bamboozled Again - Fund Roads and Transportation Now!

We are in the Hillsborough County 2017 Budget Cycle and nothing has changed.

Taxpayers are being bamboozled again by a county budget process that is disingenuous, not transparent and simply not honest.

During the FY2016 budget cycle last year, we were told the county had $121 million of new revenues that included almost $50 million of new recurring revenues and the $22.8 million one-time BP oil spill settlement money.

The FY2016 Budget stated the county was funding pet pork projects, nebulous economic development projects, new services, more parks to maintain, etc. but no money for our highest priority - roads.

FY2016 Budget statement on uses of new revenue - no money for roads

It was absurd that the county refused to appropriately fund our roads and transportation needs last year. 

The phony, crony Go Hillsborough campaign was underway during last years budget cycle. Apparently, someone(s) down at County Center preferred holding our road funding hostage last year hoping for a sales tax hike. That is now dead.

In FY2016, who knew that the county was BORROWING $46.5 million and calling that debt part of "new revenues? 

What is this debt funding?

Projects funded by Debt

Why is the county borrowing money for these projects?  According to this Tribune article last September:

County Administrator Mike Merrill this week amended his fiscal 2016 budget to include $15 million for the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, also known as ELAPP. County commissioners gave the budget preliminary approval Thursday night. 

Merrill said he was able to “make room” in the budget for ELAPP because the county is getting $6 million more in property tax revenue than was projected when he presented his budget in June. An additional $5 million is coming from the Sheriff’s Office, which often returns money it does not spend out of its yearly county appropriation.

If the county borrowed $15 million for ELAPP, then where did the $15 million go that Merrill said he found in the existing budget for ELAPP?

What specific "redevelopment" projects are being funded with these debt dollars? What is the return on investment that is expected from these projects?

Why is the county borrowing almost $50 million to fund these projects when the county has refused to fund our roads they have neglected for years?

The bigger question is why isn't the county funding our highest priorities - our roads and transportation - if the county is borrowing almost $50 million for these projects?

When we asked where the revenue was coming from to pay for the operating expenses associated with the capital projects funded by this debt, we were told the operating expenses would be covered by future revenues. 

The county will earmark future revenues to cover operating expenses for these lower priority projects at the same time the county refuses to fund our roads.

Hillsborough County is growing. We are fortunate as our housing values are increasing and we have new construction being added to our tax rolls, increasing our property tax revenues. In addition as our economy has rebounded, our sales tax revenues are also  increasing. 

Continuing to hold our roads and transportation funding hostage is nonsense.

Unfortunately, the nonsense continues with the FY2017 budget.

The county commissioners have stated transportation is our highest priority. The commissioners provided direction to county staff to pursue allocating a percentage of our new revenue growth to transportation. 

At a Budget Workshop earlier in the year when mobility fees were being discussed, Merrill acknowledged that proposal:

From Merrill Budget Presentation
earlier this year

To ensure transportation is a priority the county must allocate a percentage right off the top of the new available revenue funds BEFORE funding lower priority items. 

The FY2017 proposed budget does not do that. 

What Merrill is presenting at tomorrow's Budget Workshop is in a different format than what he presented last year. Some information appears to be missing. One-time new revenue sources, including the almost $23 million BP oil spill settlement money, are nowhere to be found. 

The estimated recurring new revenues have been reduced from Merrill's earlier budget presentation. Why?

We asked how much was going to transportation funding in the FY2017 budget, we received the following information.

New Transportation Spending in FY2017

It is absurd to include impact fee buybacks as transportation funding. Doing so drastically overstates what is actually being spent on transportation projects. That is a disservice to the taxpaying public and not being honest.

It appears that the proposed FY2017 budget continues to fail us by refusing to fund our roads and transportation needs within our existing ballooning budget.

If that does not change with our FY2017 budget cycle, then transportation is not the priority of this county commission. 

That would be shameful place to be after the county spent over three years, $1.3 million of taxpayer money and tons of county resources telling the public that transportation is a top priority.

Budget Workshop meetings are intended for in depth discussions of the budget and not intended for Board action. Tomorrow's workshop meeting has been opened to public comment but it is not a properly noticed Budget Public Hearing. 

Since the July Budget Public Hearing was cancelled by Merrill, the commissioners must take action at the Workshop tomorrow to set the millage rate which is statutorily required to be done by July 31st. 

Proper governance would dictate actions taken on the budget should occur after any workshops were held and after a properly noticed Budget Public Hearing was conducted.

Taxpayers are tired of being bamboozled while the county has done nothing to fund our roads and transportation. 

Continuing to fail to fund our roads and fix our transportation issue is not an option.

It's time to put an end to the budget nonsense now.

The county commissioners must step up. They must lead on funding our roads and transportation needs. They must stop being led by an entrenched bureaucracy who continues to fail us. 

Because….like the old Twisted Sister song….

We're not going to take it anymore!

Commissioners Must Act Now To Fund our Roads

Not only did the county commissioners vote last month at the second sales tax hike public hearing against any sales tax hike referendum, they also voted to pursue Commissioner Sandy Murman's proposal to fund our roads and transportation needs within our growing existing budget. 

We are now in the FY2017 budget cycle and there is concern that county staff is not doing that nor putting forth a budget following the strategic direction they were told. In addition, the county was not providing ample opportunity for the public to weigh in with public comment on the FY2017 budget. That would be wrong at this critical juncture where the county must start appropriately funding our roads and transportation.

Below is the public comment I made at last weeks BOCC meeting:

I am Sharon Calvert and I live in Lutz, FL. I am concerned with the 2017 budget. After two public hearings, a majority of this Board said that transportation will be a top priority in our budget.  

Five weeks later I am concerned that the recommended budget does not do that. The Board voted, you gave direction, County staff must work to do that.
For your vote to be meaningful, this Board needs to follow through and do what you said you would do, fund our roads and transportation now, starting with our FY2017 within the growth of our existing budget. 

This is a critical budget cycle. Yet there are no budget public hearings until September, way too late for the public to weigh in on changes to be made for this budget cycle. 

A budget workshop is scheduled for next week. I ask that the Board open that workshop to public comment. Otherwise, it appears there is lack of transparency and our critical budget process cannot be orchestrated and manipulated outside of Sunshine.  

The Administrator’s budget must stop growing by double digits. It is absurd that tens of millions of dollars of impact fee buybacks benefiting developers are somehow considered transportation funding. That is simply not being honest. 

Stop funding pet pork projects, stop funding those questionable and nebulous economic development projects, stop handing our tax dollars to special interests, or adding more parks to maintain, no more money to filmmakers and stop subsidizing the millionaires and billionaires - but start funding our highest priority - roads and transportation needs that have been neglected for way too long.  

For over three years, the county spent untold resources, time, effort and over $1.3 million telling the public that transportation is a priority.  

Now is the time for the Board to act and prove it. 

This budget cycle will confirm whether this Board has the fiscal discipline to reign in unnecessary spending and start appropriately funding our roads.  

The time is now to start enacting Commissioner Murman’s proposal to use the growth of our existing budget to fund our roads and transportation. 

Because continuing to hold our road funding hostage must stop now. 

Thank you.

Checking the BOCC calendar, we now find that the Budget Workshop scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and the Transportation Workshop scheduled for Wednesday afternoon have been cancelled. A Budget Workshop is now scheduled for Thursday, July 28, at 9am.

BOCC Calendar

The agenda and presentation for this meeting can be found here. From the agenda, it appears the county has opened this meeting up for public comment. 

Why is the county giving non-union county employees a 3.5% raise? That is a pay raise unheard of today in the private sector. Many of the county commissioners own constituents, who were negatively impacted by the last recession, are still playing catch up and are not receiving such pay raises. 

Our existing revenues have been growing at a rate of well over 6% per year the last few years, yet the county has refused to fund our roads. In FY2016 the county had over $100 million of new revenues, including over $40 million of new recurring revenues and the county refused to fund our roads. 

A previous budget workshop held earlier this year, County Administrator Mike Merrill presented:

Where is the almost $23 million of BP oil spill settlement money going? Those funds have no restrictions on their use and can be used for transportation that has been neglected for almost a decade. The BP oil spill settlement money and the almost $62 million of estimated new sources of funds together add up to almost $95 million of new revenues for FY2017.

There is no excuse for not funding our roads and transportation.

Yet it appears the budget proposed by County Administrator Mike Merrill does not follow the direction given by the county commissioners last month. As our county revenues continue going up and up and up, Merrill again is refusing to appropriately fund our roads and transportation. 

Merrill continues to hold our road and transportation funding hostage while he has been growing his bureaucracy for years by double digits. This is fiscally irresponsible. 

The nonsense needs to stop. In the private sector, when the Board of Directors provides specific strategic direction to company management, management must follow the direction. If management does not follow the Boards direction, they are fired.

There is a problem down at County Center that must be addressed. Merrill and his staff must work to accommodate the direction the commissioners gave him to start funding transportation within our growing existing budget. The entrenched bureaucracy must stop being obstructionists and do their job.

The county administrator is an unelected bureaucrat not a policy maker. We do not have an elected county mayor. The county administrator cannot collude with a couple of commissioners to push their own or some special interests of theirs agenda. 

If county staff refuse to follow directions given them by the elected county commissioners, then the commissioners must find the proper staff who will.

The county has wasted years doing absolutely nothing to fix our transportation. 

That is unacceptable. We demand better. 

It is time for the county commissioners to act. They must produce a FY2017 budget that starts funding our roads and transportation within our existing growing budget. 

The commissioners must rein in unnecessary spending and fund our roads and transportation needs first.

If they refuse, transportation is not a priority for THEM.

If they refuse, it confirms THEY cannot fix our transportation issue.

If they refuse, the solution to the out of control ballooning budget and bureaucracy must come from the voters themselves. 

And We the People have the power to do it.