I have to warn you right up front that I am prepared to cliché you into a stupor. I hate to do it, but the proposed penny sales tax that Hillsborough County wants us to approve this November has my hackles up and I didn't even know that I had hackles.
This tax is supposed to allocate 57% of the money collected to pay for expanded bus service and road improvements, and 43% to finance the county's light rail plan. Me and the county see eye to eye on the need for road improvements if that means filling in the pot holes. I can't seem to get my arms around that expanded bus service thingy unless the planners mean to make existing service more efficient.
What really frosts my man-nuggets though, is being asked to approve this tax for a plan that will not be finalized until after, I repeat AFTER, the November referendum. You have got to be kidding! Talk about buying a pig in a poke...or, a used car before you "Show me the Carfax."
To complete the frosting of the cake, the two existing rail plans would cost about two billion dollars...that's a 2 followed by 9 zeros. The real capper here is that the line from downtown Tampa to Cross Creek Boulevard would take about 58 minutes. The same trip by car takes about 62 minutes. So, the plan is to spend maybe a billion dollars to save four friggin' minutes? The other proposed rail line would run from downtown to Tampa International and take about 26 minutes as opposed to 18 minutes by car. Somebody's brain isn't firing on all cylinders or they must be smokin' some really good shit, and I'd like a hit of that.
I think you get the picture. I do not intend to vote for that penny sales tax. I would consider a half penny increase to pay for road improvements though...but, only after seeing a contract in writing. We have already been assured by the planners that the existing proposal will, among other things, improve the quality of our lives....which reminds me of another old saying: Don't piss down my back and tell me its raining.
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