Group's email leads back to Blair

Brian Blair says he approves of the message criticizing Hillsborough County spending, but his office didn't send it.

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TAMPA - It looks like an e-mail from a taxpayer watchdog group.

"Community Investment Tax dollars have been hijacked and are being used as a turkey fund by our city and county politicians," say the words next to a cartoon turkey.

Oddly, the e-mail lists the street address for sender Hillsborough Tax Watch as the headquarters of county government.

Click on a few links and this appears: "Thank you for joining the Brian Blair mailing list."

Blair, a Hillsborough County commissioner, said he gave less than $100 to Hillsborough Tax Watch and provided the group with an e-mail list he uses. He said he reviewed and approved of the e-mail, which blasts spending sales tax money from the Community Investment Tax, or CIT, on downtown museum projects.

But Blair said he did not send the mass e-mail, nor authorize the use of his name or the address of the County Center building.

"I want to know why my name is on there," Blair said Friday. "I've got a message to one of the people who's spearheading this to tell me why."

Blair said as far as he knows, no one in his office sent the e-mail.

"If you can prove me different somebody's going to be in trouble" he said.

Blair said he's "not the head" of Hillsborough Tax Watch, which according to state records is not incorporated, and the e-mail is "not something that's being done underhandedly by me."

On the other hand, he said, "If I wanted to send a mass e-mail out concerning county business, there's nothing wrong with that."

Blair declined to reveal names of Hillsborough Tax Watch organizers. But he supports the group's agenda.

"That's one of my pet peeves is how we spend our tax dollars," he said. "I believe we've wasted a lot of them."

The County Commission will hold a public hearing at 2 p.m. Wednesday on how to spend $350-million in CIT money.

Blair said he doesn't like that the hearing will be midday, when working people can't give opinions on the tax, which was approved by voters in 1996 to pay for public projects.

Even those who share Blair's views question his tactics.

"I object to what appears to be a deceptive e-mail sent by a county commissioner," said Al Steenson, who received e-mails from Hillsborough Tax Watch on Sept. 2 and Friday, and agrees that much taxpayer money has been wasted. "If it's Brian Blair, let Brian Blair step up to the plate. But don't do it as an organization called Hillsborough Tax Watch. Why not call it Brian Blair's Tax Watch?"

Then, there's the tone of the e-mail.

"Is the County Commission," Steenson said, "going to sit there and throw rocks at themselves?"

Joyce Smith, an activist in Town 'N Country who received the e-mail, said she assumed Hillsborough Tax Watch was affiliated with Florida TaxWatch, a state watchdog group.

Then she saw the group's mailing address.

"I thought that's weird," she said. "Why would County Center be sending that out?"

Harvey Bennett, communications director for Florida TaxWatch, said Hillsborough Tax Watch is not affiliated with his group.

"That is in our mind a violation of our brand name, which is registered," he said. Bennett said Florida TaxWatch attorneys will ask Hillsborough Tax Watch to stop using the name.

"Hopefully this can be resolved amicably," he said.

A St. Petersburg Times reporter who received the e-mail Friday replied, asking Hillsborough Tax Watch for more information. The reporter later called Blair's office to ask about the group. She was told: "We got your e-mail," by Blair's assistant Josh Burgin.

It wasn't clear how or whether Burgin knew of the e-mail reply to Hillsborough Tax Watch.

Asked about it, Blair said: "What Josh does on his own personal time is not my business."

County Commissioner Kathy Castor called the Hillsborough Tax Watch e-mail "curious."

Blair "hasn't hidden the fact that he's going to be a stickler on the CIT," she said.

She, too, has worried about public input in CIT spending.

"If nothing else," she said, "maybe this will raise the level of public interest and actually put out a little notice that the commission is about to spend a substantial amount of money."

Janet Zink can be reached at 813 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

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