Politics

HART chief wants vote on sales tax

Other rail supporters say it's too soon to ask voters for money.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD
Published July 12, 2007

TAMPA – The chairman of Hillsborough County's bus agency wants to put a referendum on the January ballot asking Hillsborough voters for a half-cent sales tax for an expanded bus system and light rail network.

It will be an uphill battle.

Even getting a referendum on the ballot would require the approval of the Hillsborough County Commission, which has shot down similar initiatives.

And some other rail supporters think January is too soon to ask voters for a new sales tax. Public officials like Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and County Commissioner Mark Sharpe think it's crucial to have a more detailed regional mass transit plan to present to the public, and more time to muster public support.

Despite those hurdles, Ricardo Roig said Wednesday he wants to put the question forward.

A Tampa lawyer who chairs the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit board, Roig acknowledged that a January referendum would mean "a tight schedule."

But he'd prefer for Hillsborough residents to vote on a half-penny tax for HART at the same time they'll be voting on a "super homestead exemption" that would slash the property taxes that HART currently relies on to operate its roughly 200 buses.

"I think it's a good opportunity for the public to decide what we want transit to be," Roig said Wednesday at a HART meeting that focused on budget cuts.

His plan would eliminate HART's property tax entirely and replace it with a more lucrative sales tax to pay for expanded bus service and some construction costs for a new rail system.

Currently, Hillsborough property owners pay 50 cents per $1,000 in taxable value to HART, which brings in about $36.5-million. But a half-cent sales tax could bring in about $110-million a year, said Ed Crawford, HART's government affairs director.

Numerous other transit agencies around the country are funded by sales taxes. In Florida, Miami-Dade and Duval counties have half-cent sales taxes for mass transit.

Roig plans to ask the 12-member HART board to vote at its Aug. 6 meeting whether to ask Hillsborough commissioners to put the question on the ballot.

Still, other officials would prefer to wait.

Iorio, who has made mass transit a focus of her second term as mayor, wants a voter referendum to pay for rail - but not in January.

"We should only go to the voters when we have a fully developed plan that has all the details of an expanded bus system and rail. We are nowhere near that point," Iorio said Wednesday.

Communities that have passed voter initiatives for light rail have taken their time and built up support for it, said Sharpe, a county commissioner who's on the HART board.

"I just think there's no rush," he said. "You don't ask for money until you've made it very clear what it is you're going to do."

Armed with a specific plan, rail supporters would need to go to civic associations and homeowners groups and tell them exactly what a rail system would do for them, Sharpe said. "Otherwise it will fail."

HART's last plan for light rail, shelved in 2003, would need to be updated. It mapped out a 21-mile, $986-million rail line linking downtown Tampa to the University of South Florida and the West Shore business district, putting 26 stations along existing CSX rail corridors. It also called for more than doubling the number of buses in Hillsborough, partly to get commuters to rail stations.

Once that rail system was established, the next phase would be to extend rail lines out into northern and eastern Hillsborough.

Now elected officials in Hillsborough and Pinellas are discussing building a linked rail system at some point. And a new regional transportation authority is supposed to come up with plans for mass transit as well.

Mike Brassfield can be reached at 813 226-3435 or brassfield@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 12, 2007, 02:17:04]