We Need our Interstates Fixed but FDOT Takes Only Transit Advocates to St. Louis

As part of FDOT's delay to fixing our interstates and the Howard Frankland Bridge and hitting "reset" on their TBX project, FDOT took a group of people to St. Louis in April for a 2 day "peer exchange" trip. They went to hear how Missouri DOT (MoDOT) dealt with and gained support for a contentious project to rebuild and expand about 10 miles of I-64. The public feared it would create the biggest traffic jam in St. Louis history since that part of the interstate would be closed for two years to complete the project.

We spoke to Linda Wilson Horn of MoDOT who said they have conducted these peer exchanges numerous times before but until this time they were only DOT to DOT. She was very pleasant, explained what they did in St. Louis regarding the I-64 reconstruction project, how the community and those from nearby neighborhoods provided input for how numerous interchanges were being rebuilt. 

The three presentations made by MoDOT to those who FDOT took for this information peer exchange in St. Louis can be found here. 

We asked FDOT who went on the trip to St. Louis and was provided the list of attendees. Who are some of these people?

FHWA Peer Exchange - April 11-12, 2017 List of Attendees
Total – 36 (28 from Tampa Bay Area) 

1 FHWA-Florida Division

• Cathy Kendall 

5 FDOT

• Bill Jones
• Ed McKinney
• Kirk Bogen
• Mary Lou Godfrey
• Xavier Pagan 

5 Consultants

• Len Becker - HNTB West FL VP & FDOT contractor for TBX
• George Walton - formerly PB/Go Hillsborough, now w/HNTB as subcontractor to Jacobs Regional Premium Transit campaign
• Danielle Moran - HNTB previously with Tampa Bay Partnership-a PR Person
• Alice Price - PM at Atkins   
• Chloe Coney - Recently retired as Rep. Kathy Castor's aide 

2 Business Community

• Karen Kress (TDP) -  Transit advocate/Tampa Downtown Partnership is a special interests group who supports higher taxes for transit and wants to expand the bankrupt Streetcar
• Rick Homans (TBP) - Transit advocate/Tampa Bay Partnership is a special interest group who has led the support in Hillsborough and Pinellas for higher taxes for transit and wrote Latvala's TBARTA bill forcing taxpayers to fund another transit agency in Tampa Bay when transit ridership is declining in Tampa Bay

7 MPO/Local Gov’t

• Tampa Councilman Harry Cohen - voted last year to keep TBX in MPO's plans            
• Tampa Councilman Guido Maniscalco - Opposes TBX
• Pinellas Commissioner John Morroni - Supported Greenlight Pinellas
• Hillsborough Commissioner Pat Kemp - Transit advocate who opposes TBX
• Whit Blanton (Forward Pinellas) - Transit adovcate
• Ray Chiaramonte (TBARTA) - Transit advocate
• Carla Williams (HART/COMTO) - Transit advocate

10 Citizens (Paid by FHWA)

• Zachary Thorn (Pinellas) - VP Government Affairs Clearwater Chamber who supported Greenlight Pinellas/transit advocate
• Brian Scott (Pinellas) - PSTA citizen board member/transit advocate
• Joe Farrell (Pinellas) - Pinellas Realtors Association Director of Governmental Affairs, transit advocate who was the campaign manager for the defeated Greenlight Pinellas campaign 
• Kelly Miller (Pasco) - President of Colonial Hills Civic Association in New Port Rickey, Chair of Pasco MPO Citizens Advisory Committee 
• Rick Fernandez (Hillsborough) - An attorney who is President of Tampa Heights Civic Association, a leader with Sunshine Citizens/StopTBX
• Dianne Hart (Hillsborough) - CEO of the East Tampa Business and Civic Association
• Debi Johnson (Hillsborough) -  President of the Old Seminole Heights Association, member of Sunshine Citizens/StopTBX
• Chris Vela (Hillsborough) -  President of urbanists group Sunshine Citizens who launched StopTBX campaign
• David Wilson (Hillsborough) - Chair of MPO Citizens Advisory Committee/appointed by Commissioner Hagan, transit supporter
• Kim Overman (Hillsborough) - recently appointed as a member of MPO Citizens Advisory Committee, President of Heights Urban Core Chamber and a StopTBX advocate who filed 6/13 last year to run against Les Miller and then suddenly withdrew from the race 6/23/2016 the same day Miller voted against TBX at the MPO meeting that day.

4 MoDOT

• Ed Hassinger, Chief Engineer
• Linda Wilson Horn, Public Information Officer
• Lester Woods, External Civil Rights
• Greg Horn, St. Louis District Engineer 

2 FHWA Missouri Division

• Kevin Ward, Division Administrator
• Dawn Perkins, St. Louis Transportation Engineer

A Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant paid for the ten citizens trip. We assume everyone else's trip was paid by their own organization, many by the taxpayers.

We asked FDOT how the 10 citizens were selected and were told this:

Via individual teleconferences, FDOT asked each of the MPO chairs from Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas County to identify candidates for the peer exchange. FHWA requested that the candidates be citizens with a demonstrated interest in transportation. Commissioner Les Miller (Hillsborough MPO) provided six representatives. Commissioner John Morroni (Forward Pinellas) provided three representatives. Mayor Camille Hernandez (Pasco MPO) provided one representative.

We do not know how the consultants or the special interests were invited or who invited them but we can certainly speculate.

What is obvious is that all the citizens, all the special interests, all those from taxpayer funded agencies are all transit advocates. Why did Commissioner Miller from Hillsborough and Commissioner Morroni from Pinellas only select urbanists and transit advocates? So much for diversity - that was simply wrong. FDOT should have ensured a much more diverse group had an opportunity to participate. 

What a lost opportunity for FDOT! 

After the St. Louis trip the urbanists hosted a meeting that FDOT also attended. So what was applauded by the urbanists? Tearing down I-275. According to this Times article

Kimberly Overman, president of the Heights Urban Core Chamber which sponsored Tuesday's community meeting, is cautiously optimistic that FDOT might consider Frank's proposal to demolish I-275.

Overman went to St. Louis and she wants to tear down I-275…..

Tearing down I-275 that today 200,000 vehicles (perhaps a half million people) use everyday is outright extreme. And we're growing in Tampa Bay. Why would FDOT consider such extremism?

Expanding the interstates that are the foundation of our transportation system in Tampa Bay, have been in FDOT's plans for over two decades. Suddenly when money is available to actually implement the improvements, some opposition gets very vocal.

We do not recall their opposition to the last I-275 improvements FDOT made between downtown and Westshore. We do not recall their opposition to the Veterans adding congestion pricing express toll lanes. But they want to now tear down I-275…..that 200,000 vehicles a day use.

The largest number of commuters into Hillsborough County is from Pasco County. North Hillsborough is bearing the brunt of that southbound traffic on I-275. Commuters are chewing up our local roads because Google Maps or Waze will route to local roads to avoid interstate congestion. That commuter traffic is putting wear and tear on our local roads not meant for that amount of traffic and making them dangerous. 

FDOT is not concerned about those safety issues? FDOT and some of our electeds don't care that today commuters are winding around our local neighborhoods where school buses are stopping, where children and others are walking and playing or where we are walking our pets? 

Commuters are hauling through the neighborhoods of those who oppose TBX too due to congestion on the interstate. Tearing down the interstate to build some massive costly thirty-five lane Boulevard to go 35 mph on will create congestion, gridlock and more commuters barreling through their neighborhood streets. 

Sunshine Citizens and StopTBX are well organized, very vocal and serve a purpose for the Tampa Bay Times to regurgitate false narratives, misinformation and push a costly transit agenda. The StopTBXers want more transit and costly fixed guideways but transit is tanking across the nation including in Tampa Bay. Innovation and technology are providing alternatives to traditional transit, offering transportation services folks see value in and are willing to pay for and disrupting traditional transit.

We understand there are issues to resolve or mitigate with the Express Lane expansion and improvement of our interstates. FDOT was talking with the public, including the StopTBXers, on how to mitigate issues. According to this Times article from June last year:

Debbie Hunt, the Florida Department of Transportation's local director of transportation development, said the agency has held a series of community meetings to try to determine what accommodations it could put in place. They include:

• Spending $10 million to buy 30 buses so the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority could provide additional bus service on five corridors, thus helping people move around TBX construction while it's under way.
• Redesigning a pond planned near Central Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard so that some water would be stored under the elevated highway instead. With a smaller pond, five houses along Central Avenue could be saved.
• Redesigning overpasses to make space below for bicycle trails and sidewalks, bus stops, streetlights and landscaping.
• Building a pass-through below part of the interstate so residents could walk between Robles Park on one side of the highway and a planned retention pond and Borrell Park on the other.
• Providing space for one or more community gardens to replace one that will be lost to construction at a Tampa Heights volunteer-built community center.

The StopTBXers cannot say FDOT has not been talking and meeting with them. They have -  FDOT has been talking with the StopTBXers for a very long time discussing how to accommodate and resolve their concerns. FDOT even took them to St. Louis last month but the rhetoric of the StopTBXers is the same.

FDOT must hear from a more diverse group of citizens. They must hear from more than the urbanists and transit extremists who want to tear down our interstates that have been in place since the 1960's. People are not moving to Tampa Bay to ride costly trains or take transit. They are bringing their cars and driving. 

This growth requires that we add interstate capacity, fix the chokepoints at I-4 and 60 and fix the Howard Frankland Bridge northbound gridlock. If people cannot get to downtown Tampa, they simply won't go. If people cannot get in and out of TIA, they will go elsewhere - as some in Eastern Hillsborough now fly out of Orlando not Tampa. Neither are good for Tampa Bay.

And the interstate Express lanes would enable cost-effective regional Express bus service that could provide the flexibility for future use by autonomous vehicles.

Where are our local leaders? We want to count noses. What local/state electeds and leaders oppose TBX, funded by FDOT with state/federal gas taxes we already pay for to improve our roads and interstates (no tax hike needed)? Which electeds in Tampa Bay are willing to give up those gas tax monies we already pay and hand those funds to another part of the state of Florida (Jax, S FL, Central FL) to be used for their road/interstate improvements?  

Inquiring minds want to know as this will be a 2018 election issue.

Common sense and reality not extremism and false rhetoric must prevail or gridlock in Tampa Bay will - then everyone loses.

Public Transportation - The transportation choice of last resort

TBARTA, decades in existence, 10s of millions spent and no viable product or plan yet on the street is not the answer.

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

It turns out that regardless of all the hype by the politicians, and the various public transportation authorities' public transportation is not all that popular with the public.

For some insight see:

BY MARC LALLANILLA, the Spruce, Updated 10/25/16 Public Transportation: eight Reasons People Hate It Our hatred of public transportation has many sources

BY MATT TINOCO IN NEWS ON MAR 25, 2016 11:05 AM
Why We Don't Take Public Transit: LAist Readers Respond

Michiko S., Palmdale

It's just more convenient to use my car to get somewhere, especially as a single mother. I can't rely on public transportation that doesn't take me directly where I want to go. Carrying things on transit, like the groceries or other errands, is also challenging.

I work for a charter school as a substitute. When I get a phone call, I have to be there ASAP. I can't stand around waiting for a bus that only might come on time. After work, I have to go pick up my kids from school right away. Again, I can't take bus for that. It takes too long.

Want to see more? Click here: Disadvantages of using public transportation.

The real problem with public transportation initiatives such as the pending bill to redo TBARTA into a taxing authority is they don't get the fact that no matter how big, how much it sparkles public transportation in the Tampa Bay areas will always remain the transportation choice of last resort.

Recently, there has been much made of the drop in rider ship on both the HART and PSTA systems. You hear a lot of hyperbole but the real issue is the economy is better, people who could not afford a car and/or gasoline now can and they opt out of public transportation as soon as it is economically feasible.

In a densely populated low height development area like much of Tampa Bay and the surrounding areas where the defining lines between residential, retail, industrial and commercial are frequently blurred, last century transportation solutions will not be cost effective.

The great goal of Janet Long, Pinellas County Commissioner, and her sidekick Senator Jack Latvala of a light-rail system running through the Bay area is just simply not feasible. It is a 1990s idea that was not a very good idea in the 90s.

TBARTA, decades in existence, 10s of millions spent and no viable product or plan yet on the street is not the answer.

Changing the name and giving them taxing authority without public oversight will just create a political nightmare of cronyism and corruption that will produce no results.

For some idea of what lies ahead check out: Caitlin Johnston, Tampa Bay Times Staff writer, Creating one transportation planning agency for all of Tampa Bay won't be easy.

For now, Governor Scott needs to let this one die or simply VETO it with a message to all those who pursue mass transit and the political contributions that go with it to come up with a plan that works and keeps the public in charge.

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, be sure to Like or share on Facebook and follow me on TWITTER  @DOC ON THE BAY

See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos.

Disclosures:

Appalling Shenanigans! Taxpayers Will Provide Knockout Punch on Transit Tax Hikes

Taxpayers should be appalled at this latest $1.5 million transit campaign and Senator Latvala's mischief making shenanigans in Tallahassee.

Taxpayers are enriching the same consultants who gave us Greenlight Pinellas, the Go Hillsborough debacle and the 2010 rail tax aka Moving Hillsborough Forward.

And surprise!

Tampa Bay Times posted this article stupidly titled Long-awaited Tampa Bay transit study identifies five corridors for future transportation systems reporting the premium regional transit campaign has identified transit corridors. Long awaited? This latest campaign started last October (7 months ago) and we've seen it all before.

Jacobs Engineering transit corridors map

It looks like Go Hillsborough, Greenlight Pinellas and Moving Hillsborough Forward packaged together and adding the bridge between Hillsborough and Pinellas. 

According to the Times article:

The five corridors Jacobs selected are a mix of routes between Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, connecting the area's densest regions and busiest road corridors: 

• Westshore to Brandon through downtown Tampa.
• Downtown Tampa to the University of South Florida.
• Wesley Chapel to USF, then to Tampa and St. Petersburg.
• Clearwater to the St. Petesburg Gateway area to downtown.
• South Tampa to downtown Tampa.

It's not much of a regional mix because most of these "corridors" are in Tampa/Hillsborough. Anyone who has travelled throughout Tampa Bay for a week knows where traffic is and could have drawn these lines for FREE. 

We know where traffic congestion is in Tampa Bay - that's easy. But these corridors do not equate or translate to transit ridership, especially at a time when transit ridership is declining and innovation and technology are disrupting traditional transit. 

This corridor map is not even shown on the Jacobs website except in the link to the news article. Is Jacobs just feeding their media accomplices a story line? That's what PR campaigns do for favorable press.

And taxpayers are paying Jacobs $1.5 million to look backward at old studies (some decades old) so are they using old and outdated data? There's no back up data that has been provided at all by Jacobs for this map. Where's at least the daily traffic counts?

This effort was sold to the public as a feasibility study. It is not and the contract awarded to Jacobs confirms that. Jacobs and HART rebranded it as a plan but it's not that either. It is a campaign that includes the very same campaign elements we saw with the failed Go Hillsborough debacle. 

Scroll down to Attachment 1 of Exhibit G in the contract that lists all the subcontractors. Lots of taxpayer money again being spent on "public involvement" using PR firms, including B2 Communications, the same PR firm for Greenlight Pinellas.

As we previously posted, B2 Communications presented their Lessons Learned about the Greenlight defeat at the 2015 Transit Initiatives and Communities Conference sponsored by the transit advocacy/lobbying group Center for Transportation Excellence (CFTE). These CFTE conferences are where transit advocates gather for advice on how to win transit ballot measures. CFTE provides information and an entire Campaign Toolkit for how to combat opposition - people like you the taxpayer. (Remember Jason Jordan who presented at a TMA meeting last year.)

B2 Communications personally targeted those who opposed rail boondoggles such as Randal O'Toole and the Libertarian think tank, the CATO Institute. We must assume they will locally target those who oppose boondoggles.

These are the same people working on this regional transit campaign. 

Think B2 is using their own lessons learned medicine this go round? Their presentation at the CFTE conference indicated this time they will not be staying "above the fray". B2 will be putting on their boxing gloves [against the taxpayer]. Taxpayers should not be funding anyone with such a cavalier attitude.

B2 Communications will put on their
boxing gloves 

No matter how this latest campaign is sliced and diced, transit projects that spit out will require funding. No new transit project can get any federal or state funding without committed long term local/regional funding. 

Enter the mischief making shenanigans by Senator Latvala in Tallahassee which is directly tied to the regional transit campaign. Latvala attempting to force feed an unnecessary regional transit agency, requested by special interests, on taxpayers in Tampa Bay is simply egregious. 

The special interests who wrote the TBARTA bill headed to Tallahassee to get Latvala to amend his TBARTA bill after the rail oversight was inserted by Senators Brandes and Lee. Latvala obliged and added an amendment, probably written by the special interests, trying to water down what Brandes/Lee inserted. 

The Latvala lackey's at the Tampa Bay Times immediately wrote an editorial falsely accusing Senator Brandes of mischief making. The Times does confirm what we have been saying - this bill is all about special interests Tampa Bay Partnership, and ignoring the will of the people in Tampa Bay who have consistently rejected higher taxes for transit.

The real mischief maker who created this crony mess is Senator Latvala! 
Remember the Genesis of this bill to take away local control, thwart local voters, ignore the will of the people and empower special interests. It's called tyranny.

Latvala hastily filed the crony TBARTA bill written by special interest the weekend before session started. Latvala ensured his crony bill never went thru the local delegations of the counties impacted. Latvala bent the rules of normal bill process to keep his crony bill from going through Senator Brandes's Transportation Appropriations Committee.

The Times accusing Senator Brandes of mischief making is simply a lie. But just think of the Times as a complicit partner in Latvala's crony mischief making with a byline. 

The Times may have spoke too soon as Senator Brandes has added another amendment neutering some of Latvala's mischief making shenanigans.

There is still time for the TBARTA bill to die, especially in the House. There are multiple versions and they will have to be reconciled in the short amount of time left in the session to pass. 

In addition, Governor Scott could veto the bill as he de-funded TBARTA in 2011.

This latest taxpayer funded transit campaign is a waste of taxpayer money but is obviously part of Latvala's crony mischief making in Tallahassee.  

Did FDOT know they were funding what looks like another taxpayer funded Go Hillsborough campaign for higher taxes when they handed HART $1.5 million? 

The public was misled from the get go on its intent and its timing is horrible - declining transit ridership, innovation disrupting traditional transit and good probability of no or little federal dollars for new transit projects. 

The intent is all about pursuing transit projects that can get state/federal capital money. That is totally disingenuous and unfair to taxpayers. 

Pursuing state and federal capital grant money does not mean those project(s) are financially sound or sustainable, especially over the long term. Just look at the fiscal mess of SunRail and the Tri-Rail mess that all FL taxpayers bail out every year. There is a huge fiscal burden of on going operating, maintenance and major rehab and replacement costs that will be borne by local taxpayers. The honest truth about these burdensome costs too often are ignored and transparency to taxpayers about them grossly lacking or nonexistent.

If Jacobs, B2, special interest, politicos, etc. are going to put their boxing gloves on to push another tax hike referendum, then the taxpayers of Tampa Bay can put their boxing gloves on too.

And this time the Taxpayers in Tampa Bay will take the knock out punch to shatter once and for all tax hike referendums for transit boondoggles.

Ridership Declining: No Need For Regional Transit Agency, Big Need to Fix Interstates and HF Bridge

Special interests, lobbyists, Senator Latvala and their media enablers are feverishly working together to force a regional transit authority on Tampa Bay taxpayers. However, they cannot ignore the state of transit in Hillsborough and Pinellas - double digit ridership declines. Hillsborough's population is growing but its transit ridership is declining.

At the HART Board Finance and Audit Committee meeting this week, the budgetary pressures on HART were presented and discussed. The chart below from the budget presentation, found here, reflects HART's current budget issues.

HART's budgetary pressures

The video of the lengthy committee meeting that includes this presentation is found here.

To net things out, HART has a deficit of a little over $13 million dollars. The major causes of the deficit are declining ridership and rising healthcare costs (thanks Obamacare…) HART moved to using zero based budgeting this budget cycle that enabled them to reduce that deficit to about $8.5 million. (shows why zero based budgeting should be used by all taxpayer funded entities…)

The budget will be part of HART's Board meeting agendas from May through August with Budget public hearings in September. The May 1 HART Board meeting will be interesting and one to watch and pay attention to.

Across the Bay in Pinellas, PSTA, mismanaged for years, is experiencing ridership declines as well.

This recent Tampa Bay Guardian article states PSTA's ridership is at a 10 year low. Even when PSTA made rides free on the Jolly Trolley, ridership for the Jolly Trolley was 52,235 in March, down a whopping 34% from 79,045 in March of 2016. And tourism is booming again in Pinellas.

The Guardian article also indicates how ridership is defined which overstates the number of actual riders. There is also a bit of a scandal regarding the recent contract for the trolley service and some sketchy changes to reporting done by PSTA.

HART and PSTA's declining ridership is what almost every transit agency in the country, except in NYC, is experiencing.

Existing rail systems are entering an era of disrepair as we have a backlog of $80 Billion of major repair and rehab needed. Trump's skinny budget eliminates the federal New Starts/Small Starts and Tiger grants for new transit projects. Trump has stated he wants to focus on getting our existing infrastructure in good repair.

Yet today taxpayers are funding another transit campaign, this time a regional one, the $1.6 million Regional Premium Transit campaign. The cost of this latest campaign is ghastly - especially after the $1.3 million Go Hillsborough debacle.

And conveniently timed with the transit campaign is Senator Latvala's bill. His bill will force taxpayers in Tampa Bay to fund a regional transit authority that takes away local control and will trigger  regional taxing.

What's more egregious is how the bill was created, the unscrupulous politics and the bully tactics being used. The bill was created behind the scenes by the same special interests organization who has been the biggest supporter of rail in Tampa Bay.

Latvala used  abused his powerful Appropriations Chair position in the Senate by playing games with the process rules and holding appropriations bills hostage to get his way to move the bill along. Fortunately Senators Lee and Brandes amended the bill to reign in some of the shenanigans we fully expect with a regional transit authority. Their efforts are greatly appreciated but we hope the bill dies.

With declining transit ridership in Tampa Bay, Latvala's bill and the costly transit campaign is absurd. Considering the state of our existing infrastructure and getting any federal dollars for new transit projects may be a pipe dream, these are out of touch with reality.

Tampa Bay has a transportation issue it needs to address not a sudden regional transit issue and it certainly does not need another transit agency, an arms length away from voters and taxpayers, to fund.

Regional transit authorities become very powerful, arrogant, wasteful and require higher taxes. Almost all, if not all, of the rail boondoggles were rammed through regional transit agencies pushed by deep pocketed special interests.

The focus needs to be on getting our existing infrastructure in good repair FIRST.

Focus on fixing and improving our interstates - the foundation of our transportation system in Tampa Bay - add the needed managed lane capacity that also creates a bus transit corridor that could also be used by AV's in the near future, fix the chokepoints and fix the Howard Frankland Bridge that hundreds of thousands of people in 180K vehicles use everyday. FDOT has the funding, no tax hike needed, to get this done.

Do the Basics First!

Stop pursuing the absurd.


—————————————————————————————————————-

Here again is the Genesis for Latvala's regional transit bill today. Everyone should watch it.

Kill the Bill Driven by Special Interests and Unscrupulous Politics

What happens when a powerful and arrogant state politician teams up with special interests to ram their agenda through by the state because their agenda keeps losing bigly at the ballot box?

Unscrupulous, unfair and unethical politics. 

This is the Genesis years ago for Senator Latvala's regional power grab bill for a regional transit authority in Tampa Bay.

Latvala already forced taxpayers to pay for two HART/PSTA merger studies. Merging was rejected after both studies.

Now unscrupulous politics is behind Latvala's SB1672 bill to reorganize TBARTA into a five county (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Hernando) regional transit authority. The bill will unnecessarily force taxpayers to fund another transit agency in Tampa Bay.  

Six of the thirteen members of the newly created TBARTA transit authority Board will be politicos from Hillsborough and Pinellas. Nine of the thirteen Board members will be politicos highly politicizing this new transit authority ala a PSTA on steroids but an arms length away from local voters and taxpayers. (PSTA has been mismanaged for years.) 

As stated before, we have a transportation issue in Tampa Bay not a sudden transit issue. Transit ridership is declining by double digits. Latvala should be laser focused on fixing the Howard Frankland Bridge, our interstates and the chokepoints that 180,000 vehicles use everyday, expanding interstate capacity and creating a regional transit corridor cost-effectively on managed lanes that could be used by autonomous vehicles/buses, not forcing taxpayers in Tampa Bay to fund another transit authority.

How was SB1672 created? It was written by special interests Tampa Bay Partnership. 

Tampa Bay Partnership has been the biggest supporter of rail referendums in Tampa Bay. Remember Moving Hillsborough? They were the pro rail PAC who ran the FAILED 2010 $1.3 million pro rail tax advocacy campaign. Moving Hillsborough Forward was the siamese twin of Tampa Bay Partnership, the connected organization to the PAC and the biggest financial donors to the pro rail tax campaign. Find all of their contributions and expenditures here. Deep pocketed special interests donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the rail tax hike campaign.

Tampa Bay Partnership = Moving Hillsborough Forward

Again, in 2014, Tampa Bay Partnership was a big donor and provided the accounting and administrative support for the FAILED $1.5 million Greenlight Pinellas PAC, Friends of Greenlight. Find all their contributions and expenditures here. An eye popping contribution was from the National Association of Realtors for $245,000. No surprise - rail is never about mobility but about land use. 

Polk County had transit sales tax hikes on the ballot in 2010 and 2014 also supported by Tampa Bay Partnership and they too went down in huge defeats.

Throughout those campaigns, Tampa Bay Partnership, a non-profit, was taking taxpayer money from taxpayer funded entities. Since money is fungible no one knows whether they used money received from taxpayer funded entities to fund their tax hike campaign.

After Greenlight was defeated and after suffering so many defeats, Stuart Rogel, CEO of Tampa Bay Partnership resigned. They did finally stop taking taxpayer money. Good!

Tampa Bay Partnership hired Rick Homans, former CEO of the Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. (heavily funded by taxpayer money) to replace Rogel. As we posted here back on August 4, 2013, Homans worked with pro rail County Administrator Mike Merrill, to invite all the pro rail groupies to the very first Policy Leadership Group meeting. Attendee Gary Sasso was the Chair of Moving Hillsborough Forward. 

According to this SaintPetersblog report last year, Tampa Bay Partnership announced they will launch a PAC "Advance Tampa Bay". Imagine a massive multi-million dollar multi-county advocacy campaign for higher taxes in Tampa Bay. That's how regional taxes for rail boondoggles get rammed through regional transit authorities.

Now the Tampa Bay Partnership is using our state legislature and a powerful Senate Appropriations Chair who wants rail across the Howard Frankland Bridge and trains to a new baseball stadium.

Special interests Tampa Bay Partnership wrote SB1672 and simply handed it to Senator Latvala. Latvala hastily filed the bill the weekend before the session started. Tampa Bay Partnership knew Latvala would run with the bill and use his Appropriations Chair power to ram it through the finish line. 

Remember this bill intentionally never went before the local delegations of any of the counties impacted so local citizens could never weigh in. Latvala and Tampa Bay Partnership know citizens cannot drop everything and make a trip to Tallahassee. They bank on that. 

While Tampa Bay Partnership lobbyists troll the halls of Tallahassee pushing the bill, Latvala holds appropriations bills hostage using bully tactics to ram his bill through. 

Latvala's brute force tactics included not following normal proper procedures by ensuring this bill did not go through the Senate's Transportation Appropriations Committee chaired by Senator Brandes. 

How can a transportation bill not go through the Transportation Appropriations Committee? Because Latvala plays games with the rules. Brandes is probably the most knowledgeable Senator on Transportation issues in Tallahassee and Latvala's tactics to avoid his committee reeks.

What is the latest on this messy and unscrupulous regional power grab bill?

It went through the Senate's Community Affairs Committee yesterday but was amended to provide some additional oversight. Kudos to Senators Lee and Brandes for their efforts to minimize potential shenanigans we fully anticipate will be created by this new regional transit authority. Confirms the Senate does not trust the new TBARTA either.

The Tampa Bay Times reported:

Sens. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg and Tom Lee of Thonotosassa overrode Latvala with an amendment that strips the authority of its independence by requiring legislative approval for any local spending on a light rail system and barring the authority from spending money to advocate for light rail in a voter referendum. 

"Voters of Hillsborough County and Pineellas County have rejected these in the past," Brandes said. "My goal is that this doesn't become an opportunity for Greenlight Pinellas 2.0," referring to the latest rejection of a transit plan by county voters. 

Latvala was so livid at the transit maneuver by Brandes and Lee that he declined to speak to a Times/Herald reporter after the vote. As Latvala silently left the hearing room, Lee said: "You're welcome, Senator Latvala."

Of course Tampa Bay Partnership was there in person to speak in support of the messy bill they created.

SaintPetersblog also reported:

St. Petersburg’s Jeff Brandes and Brandon’s Tom Lee, neither of whom as considered enthusiasts of light rail — added an amendment that would create additional obstacles if the newly configured TBARTA ever opted to pursue a light rail project. 

The amendment calls for a majority vote by the MPOs of each county impacted by any proposed rail projects before the authority can pursue any real related contract. It would also require the authority to conduct a feasibility from an independent third party before pursuing any rail-related project, and require the authority to receive approval of the entire Florida Legislature before pursuing any rail project.

Taxpayers in Tampa Bay appreciate Senator Brandes and Lee's efforts because we know Latvala was holding hostage so many bills. 

Remember this is a two phased mess. No regional transit authority can do anything without funding. We have to pass this bill to then find out how the new TBARTA will be funded, who will fund it or what is to be funded. That is not fair to taxpayers and simply bad governance. 

Next year the new (highly politicized) TBARTA Board will come back to Latvala and the state legislature, as Latvala admitted when he presented the bill, for more legislation to answer those critical questions. Next year is conveniently timed with the Regional Premium Transit Campaign. 

The last stop this session before a floor vote in the Senate is the Appropriations Committee that Latvala chairs. Senators, especially those outside the Tampa Bay area, should look at Latvala's bully tactics and be concerned because these tactics could be done to them.

What's next?

The House companion bill HB1243 is now on the agenda of the House Government Accountability Committee tomorrow at 8am. Any committee titled Government Accountability should reject this messy bill created by special interests who used the powerful Senate Appropriations Chair to force feed the bill that no citizen in Tampa Bay requested.

Once a regional entity is created and funded, it is basically impossible to get rid of, no matter how far amok they run or how corrupt they become. Regional transit authorities throughout the country have become very powerful, arrogant and wasteful as they empower special interests influence.

The public and the electeds should understand the unscrupulous politics associated with this bill. The best disinfectant is to shine a light on them. 

Hopefully truth will triumph over tyranny and the House will Kill the Bill.

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Voice opposition to this messy bill, HB1243, by contacting the members of the House Government Accountability Committee Today and state reps and Governor Scott.

Note: there are three Tampa Bay representatives to hold accountable on this committee: Dan Raulerson, Chris Latvala, Wengay Newton 

State Representatives (find your state rep)

Speaker Corcoran

Governor Scott

Sales Tax Hike For New Regional Transit Authority Will Be YUUGGE!

The Tampa Bay rail cartel is back, with their media accomplices attached.

And this time it is for regional power and regional taxing. 

Regional power requires regional taxes

Our skepticism of the $1.3 million taxpayer funded Go Hillsborough campaign was right on. We speculated it would end up with another unnecessary sales tax hike that included costly rail and it did.

The AEComm report, paid for by Hillsborough County in 2014, clearly stated Hillsborough does not have the transit ridership, the densities or the cost per trip requirements to meet the federal criteria to receive federal funds for fixed guideways. This is why the report was hidden and whitewashed by the County and by our local media because AEComm recommended (highlight is mine):

Initial transit investment should be in a travel corridor with the potential to generate very high transit ridership at a very low start-up cost to improve the project’s cost effectiveness and increasing the probability of obtaining federal funding support.

The prospect of a network of managed lanes within the Tampa Bay region provides an extremely attractive opportunity to provide high quality, higher speed Rapid Bus or Enhanced Bus on managed lane services to address regional travel and longer distance commuting markets. (aka FDOT's TBX project that has been delayed and Phase 1 funded by gas taxes we already pay)

Hillsborough County should approach making transit investments cautiously and prudently.

Even after voters soundly defeated the rail tax in 2010 and after the AEComm report, Go Hillsborough ignored the will of the voters and proposed another 30 year sales tax hike to pay for costly rail and fixed guideways. Why? Because some politicos, entrenched bureaucrats and special interests eyeing another big pot of tax dollars wanted it.

Even after Greenlight Pinellas was soundly defeated in 2014 and Go Hillsborough dumped last year, they are at it again with the $1.5 million taxpayer funded Regional Premium Transit Campaign currently underway. This time it is Go Hillsborough/Greenlight Pinellas on steroids - a regionalized campaign effort to sell another YUUGGE sales tax hike and this time it will be regional. 

And the new regional transit authority board will be run by almost all electeds  - another mismanaged PSTA on steroids…

How do we know this latest effort is about higher taxes in Tampa Bay? 

Because Jacobs Engineering, the same consultant who did Greenlight Pinellas and was a subcontractor to Parsons Brinckerhoff on Go Hillsborough, told us in their presentation responding to the RFP to get the campaign work. Their presentation slide below reflects their arrogant attitude - we are just too stupid for not wanting to raise our taxes to pay for boondoggles. This slide insults our intelligence and should have disqualified Jacobs.

Slide from Jacobs Engineering RFP presentation 

How else do we know?

Because it will take massive regional taxing to fund the regional transit projects we expect to pop out of this latest campaign - the CSX corridor and other costly rail/fixed guideway projects.

Jacobs' website for the regional transit campaign is here which clearly states the federal FTA is the primary audience. Information about their evaluation plan found here clearly states the need for local financial commitment. The map below that reflects projects Jacobs says they are considering is full of rail projects.

Projects Jacobs is considering includes
lots of rail projects 

With federal money for transit projects drying up, we seriously doubt our state legislators will allow another SunRail disaster to occur. The state way over paid for CSX tracks in Central Florida and the local municipalities still do not have a committed long term funding source. We doubt the state will pick up the big tab to cover what federal grants were previously covering.

That is why special interests Tampa Bay Partnership created Latvala's bill who hastily filed it before the session started. It forces taxpayers to fund another transit agency in Tampa Bay. This new regional transit authority will enable regional power an arms length away from voters and taxpayers, and provide the trigger for regional taxing. 

Latvala's bill must be stopped because regional transit authorities are how most, if not all, of the rail boondoggles across the country were pushed through. These regional transit authorities, especially over time, become powerful, arrogant and wasteful. Regional transit authorities empower deep pocketed special interests who then launch massive multi-million dollar campaigns for higher taxes. These regional entities often end up reeking of cronyism and corruption - a post for another day. 

A recent TBBJ article also confirms the Regional Premium Transit campaign is ignoring the will of the voters who have consistently rejected rail boondoggles. A subscription is required to access the article online so we included the entire article below (highlight mine).

Transit engineers to announce priority Tampa Bay corridors this week

The engineering firm responsible for targeting Tampa Bay area transit priorities as part of a state-funded process will announce this week five corridors it has identified as top attractors for federal funding. The announcement will serve as the first major step toward identifying a regional transit solution and pave the way for the next step, which is determining the mode of transit that will work best 

Transit in the Tampa Bay region has been so far left behind that a group of top-level CEOs came together with $50,000 each to recreate the Tampa Bay Partnership with a sole emphasis on transit improvements. 

The Florida Department of Transportation is funding the regional transit feasibility study through the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, aimed at honing transit across municipal boundaries rather than a piecemeal approach by county. Experts will evaluate more than 60 transit plans, most of which were never brought to fruition, to establish priorities. 

“The Tampa Bay area hasn’t been very good at that,” said Scott Pringle, a group director with Jacobs Engineering, the company conducting the transit study.
The announcement is likely to include connections between Tampa and St. Petersburg.  

One of the studies Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC) employees are looking at is the 2014 Greenlight Pinellas plan that would have created a passenger rail line connecting downtown St. Pete, mid-Pinellas County in the Carillon area and downtown Clearwater. Voters rejected the one-penny sales tax increase to fund the measure. While the corridor will be a key step in improving transit throughout the region, identifying a mode is likely to be more controversial. Transit critics have historically blasted the idea of light rail projects as being too costly and outdated. 

Pringle rejects the notion that rail is an outdated means of moving people. “A lot of steel wheel solutions move a lot of people really fast,” Pringle said. “So if that’s what your corridor needs then it makes sense.” 

Engineers will study the makeup of the targeted transit corridor next to establish patterns like how many people travel portions of it and how often. That can help planners decide where to put stops and how frequently to service routes.
Solutions could range anywhere from increasing bus service to using autonomous vehicles. 

Knowing where transit service would work best could also increase the odds of receiving federal funding by showing the chosen transit mode will help connect people who don’t own cars to job centers. Pringle said that’s like “extra credit” for attracting federal dollars. 

While transit planners are quick to celebrate the study as a major step toward increasing regional transit options, there will always be the question of funding. 

Those who have worked for years to block transit spending often decry it as a waste of money, a notion Pringle and other transit supporters reject.
“It’s a critical part of our infrastructure to grow jobs and attract people,” Pringle said. “There aren’t really roadways that pay for themselves either.”

Scott Pringle is out of touch with reality. Costly rail is outdated except for the densest population areas like NYC. Tampa Bay does not have the densities for rail and the AEComm report that Hillsborough County tried to bury in 2014 confirmed that. Our roads are very highly utilized assets used by 98% of us everyday. Highly utilized assets reduces the cost per trip that increases the value of its use.

With getting federal money for new transit projects anytime soon becoming a pipe dream, what is their Plan B? State and local funding…..

That's why regional taxing will be required to fund the costly transit projects we speculate again will pop out of this latest taxpayer funded transit campaign.

And the regional taxing is gonna be YUUGGE!

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Help stop the regional power grab that will trigger regional taxing. Contact state
legislators to voice opposition to HB1243 and SB1672
General Accountability Committee 
Community Affairs Committee
State Representatives (find your state rep)
State Senators (find your state senator)
Speaker Corcoran
Governor Scott