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Politics

Penny tax shines at ballot box

Voters once again extend the tax for a decade, despite recent opposition.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published March 14, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Volunteers hold up campaign signs Tuesday standing outside the Gulfport Recreation Center. Pinellas election news Penny for Pinellas extended to 2020 Clearwater voters say yes to boat slip project Activists capture two seats in St. Pete Beach Voters okay upgrade for Vinoy Check results The Buzz: The latest political news

Despite organized opposition and a seemingly antitax climate, voters Tuesday extended the Penny for Pinellas another decade.

In a strikingly low turnout, 57 percent of voters approved the 1-cent per dollar sales tax.

Now county government and Pinellas' 24 cities will enjoy an estimated $2-billion in revenue from 2010, when the tax was to expire, through 2020. Governments will use the money to pay for an array of public infrastructure projects, such as spending $225-million for additional jail beds and courtrooms.

Passage of the Penny, in a voter turnout of only 16 percent, came as relief to elected leaders who had seen their darling assaulted by critics from several quarters in the week before Tuesday's vote.

"The Penny is vital," County Commissioner Ken Welch said shortly after results were known. "I'm glad that the people of Pinellas County reconfirmed its value even in the midst of some misdirected action in response to the property tax issue."

In the days leading up to the vote, it certainly seemed the Penny's passage was in greater peril. Gov. Charlie Crist, a Pinellas voter, came out against the Penny, saying local governments are wallowing in cash.

Opposition came also from residents galvanized by the property tax revolt of last September, which led some local governments to trim their property tax rates. One flowering of this movement is the group Cut Taxes Now, which staged a rally Friday against the Penny on the steps of the County Courthouse.

But it was the last minute attempt to influence the vote by Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg that many found most surprising.

Despite state law requiring that Penny revenue be spent on public infrastructure such as jails, roads, bridges and parks, Lynch faulted the county's plan for spending little to aid the disadvantaged.

The bishop's message was delivered in letters to his priests, inside a Catholic newsletter and in a full page ad in Sunday's St. Petersburg Times. Although no explicit directive to vote no was delivered, Lynch did take aim at the Penny from the pulpit, telling parishioners Sunday that $30-million in the spending plan slated for affordable housing was "a pittance."

Frank Murphy, head of Catholic Charities, was involved in the talks that led the church to come out against the Penny. Murphy said he was not disappointed, but would have wanted Tuesday's result to be a little closer.

"Voters have expressed themselves," Murphy said. "We still intend to go back to the county and ask for more money for social services."

In the end, the anti-Penny onslaught, while it certainly had elected leaders nervous, was not enough to shake the faith voters have in the tax, which has been in effect since 1990.

"If they do everything they say they are going to do with the Penny, it'll be a good thing," said 81-year-old Gloria Brown, a St. Petersburg voter and resident since 1949 who enjoys city parks that have benefitted from Penny funding.

County leaders scheduled Tuesday's vote back in 2005. In the run up, the decision was criticized by some, including Lynch, who said the vote was deliberately staged during an off-year municipal election cycle, which historically have low turnout.

In such elections, the thinking goes, only highly motivated voters - such as diehard Penny backers - will bother going to the polls, increasing the likelihood of the tax being approved.

Despite strident efforts by Penny enthusiasts and tax detractors to get their fellow believers to the polls, Tuesday's turnout was far poorer than even past experience would have suggested.

When the Penny was first adopted, narrowly, in 1989, voter turnout was 29 percent. Voters extended the tax again by a landslide in 1997 and turnout was 23 percent.

Staff Writer Aaron Sharockman contributed to this report. Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or 727-445-4166.

[Last modified March 14, 2007, 00:44:37]