TAMPA - Hillsborough Commissioner Pat Frank went seeking details and assurances from the county's transit agency on how it would spend additional money if she agrees to support new spending for bus service.
She got none, putting in jeopardy a proposal to ask voters to consider raising the sales tax to pay for transportation projects.
Commissioners are scheduled today to discuss whether to support in concept pursuing the referendum on a half-penny sales tax increase for transportation projects. A third of the money raised - nearly $20-million annually - would go to Hillsborough Area Regional Transit to increase the frequency and time of bus service.
Frank is the critical swing vote in the debate and has drafted her own proposal for how she would like HARTline to spend the money, concentrating bus routes in congested urban areas. She said she went to HARTline for an emergency meeting Tuesday to see if its board would bless the plan generally, specify at least some routes that would get added bus service, and say how that would benefit ridership.
The HARTline board declined to do any of that, killing a proposal to endorse the plan on a 4-5 vote, even though it generally is not much different from its own plans. Some board members said they wanted more time to discuss and analyze the issue in greater detail.
Frank declined to say whether that will end her support of the referendum proposal.
"Maybe I'll make another motion. We'll see," Frank said. "I don't know where the conversation is going to go."
Commission Chairman Tom Scott, whose term as the board's official leader ends next month, and who initiated the transportation discussion, has said he may withdraw his own support for the effort if it does not move forward today. The board has discussed the issue in detail for years now, and a citizens committee recommended a similar plan four years ago. It's time to make a decision or drop it, he said Tuesday.
"If it does not move forward (Wednesday), I can't make a commitment that I will be in support if it comes back," Scott said.
He likened it to leading a horse to water only to find an empty trough.
"You can't keep giving people hope and when they get there, there's no hope," Scott said.
