Merits of transit tax debated

Supporters of a proposed 1-cent sales tax for Hillsborough County transportation improvements say the tax would fuel economic expansion, unclog highways and contain urban sprawl.

Opponents, meanwhile, call the tax a job-killer that bureaucrats are trying to foist on the public using faulty population and ridership projections.

About 80 people attending Friday's Tiger Bay luncheon heard County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who favors the tax, debate tax opponent Jim Hosler, a private planner and demographer. Voters are likely to see the tax question on the November ballot.

Both men showered the audience with facts and figures to buttress their positions. Sharpe said county roads need $16 billion worth of improvements to handle current traffic loads. A study late last year rated roads in the Tampa Bay area the second most dangerous in the country.

The county's traffic congestion, combined with the cost of housing, makes Hillsborough one of the most expensive places to live in the nation, Sharpe said. He blamed sprawling growth that ate up county rural areas and put the population farther and farther away from jobs and government services.

"As we grew out, we couldn't keep up with infrastructure and the cost of government kept going higher and higher," Sharpe said.

The tax, Sharpe said, would take pressure off crowded roadways through a combination of light rail, new roads, more buses and circulating collector buses and vans.

The rail system, which would connect the University of South Florida with downtown and the Westshore business district, will create new businesses along its route, Sharpe said, as well as denser residential development. He cited successful light rail systems in Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Not only has ridership grown in those cities, Sharpe said, but the rail systems have fueled new development.

"If you want to continue to bring in high-paying jobs, you want to move people and goods to market quickly," he said.

But Hosler argued that now is the worst possible time to burden residents with a new tax. Unemployment in the Tampa Bay metro area is 12.3 percent, highest in the state. The Bay area had a record 28,503 bankruptcies last year, he said, and nearly half of all homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.

"Transit will not create permanent private jobs," Hosler said. "Raising taxes will add to the uncertainty in the economy."

Hosler said voters are being asked to vote on a transportation plan with few details about costs, revenue and projected ridership. He questioned demographic projections in the plans, developed by the county's Transportation Task Force and Hillsborough Area Regional Transit.

For instance, the plan projects that by 2025, Tampa's core population will add 91,000 residents, or more than 38,000 homes. During the same period, the plan projects 100,000 new jobs in Tampa, which Hosler said would require 4.5 million square feet in redeveloped commercial space.

Hosler said city population figures are already running behind the projected trends.

The county commission will decide March 3 whether to put the transit tax on the Nov. 2 ballot. A majority of commissioners say they support putting it to a vote.