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Stormwater tax rejected by Buckhorn
By DAVID KARP, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- City Council member Bob Buckhorn became the first mayoral candidate to oppose a new tax to fix the city's $600-million stormwater problems. Buckhorn said Tuesday that he would vote against the tax when the council takes up the issue Feb. 27, just five days before the March 4 election. "We are not going to get the community to rally on the big issues if we erode credibility on the little issues," he said after a Rotary Club luncheon. Buckhorn's stance will likely turn the tax into a major issue in the mayor's race. The other candidates support the proposed $12-a-year fee for homeowners. Buckhorn said voters already have approved a new half-cent sales tax to fix stormwater problems. But instead of using the 1996 Community Investment Tax, or CIT, on basics as promised, he said, it was spent to build the new Tampa Museum of Art and expand the Lowry Park Zoo. "There was one person who voted against it: That was me," he said. Voters passed the CIT in 1996 to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and to pay for new police cars, new schools, new roads and stormwater projects. Mayor Dick Greco and other leaders campaigned for it, saying it would go to pay for basics. "I don't think you can go back to the public and say, 'We were kidding,' " Buckhorn said. Now Greco has proposed the new stormwater tax, which would raise about $4-million annually to fix Tampa's $600-million stormwater problems. Homeowners would pay $12 a year on property tax bills; apartment dwellers would pay $6 a year; and commercial property owners would pay a fee based on runoff caused by their buildings and parking lots. Buckhorn's stance sets him apart in the mayor's race as a fiscal conservative, something he has called himself in speeches across the city. But it could also alienate South Tampa residents who want the city to clean canals and fix up intersections that flood during rainstorms. Buckhorn also has billed himself as a mayor who would take care of basics, putting potholes before big-ticket projects. But without a new tax for stormwater projects, Buckhorn could not identify specific funds Tuesday that would pay for stormwater problems -- one of those basics. Buckhorn said he would take existing money from the city budget, but he didn't say where he would find that money, or what would get cut. The tax will likely pass the seven-member council next week over Buckhorn's opposition. Only Buckhorn and City Council member Shawn Harrison oppose it, and Buckhorn voted in December to let the council move ahead to a final vote. The other candidates immediately labeled Buckhorn an opportunist more interested in scoring political points than solving problems. "That looks to me like finding a scapegoat instead of finding a solution," said Frank Sanchez, a former Clinton White House aide running for mayor. "Where was the commitment 15 years ago when we didn't have the CIT, and we still had a stormwater problem?" About 100 other Florida cities have passed stormwater taxes to keep roads safe and canals clean, he said. "This is an issue that has been really neglected," he said. "We have to be problem solvers," said former Elections Supervisor Pam Iorio, who voted for a stormwater fee as a county commissioner. "Any mayor has to work with the cards that they are dealt." Candidate Don Ardell, a fitness author, agreed that tax funds had been mismanaged in the past. "But that doesn't solve today's problems," he said. City Council chairman and mayoral candidate Charlie Miranda opposed the half-cent sales tax in 1996. But after voters approved it, he voted in 2001 to spend millions for a new arts museum. He supports an additional stormwater tax now. Without a new stormwater tax, the city might face fines from state and federal environmental regulators, Miranda said. Using CIT money to build a new art museum didn't betray voters, he said. Voters were told the money would be used to build capital projects -- and that could include a zoo or arts museum. "As long as that money is spent for a public purpose, that was the intent of the tax," Miranda said. "What more public purpose do you want than a zoo for kids who never had a chance to go?" -- David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com.
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