Misleading Facts in its Entirety

Today the Tribune published a Letter to the Editor titled Misleading Facts submitted by the Eye's founder, Mark Calvert.  We appreciate the Tribune publishing Mark's letter but they shortened it a bit.  Therefore, we are publishing the letter to the editor in it's entirety as submitted and highlighting what was removed by the Tribune.

Regarding the February 2nd, 2014 Editorial “Much riding on Pinellas transit plan”, the Tribune did not validate Greenlight Pinellas statements against the facts. 

The Trib stated "Another 200,000 people are expected to move into the county over the next 25 years, a 20 percent increase". 

This is cherry picking the data. According to the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research, (http://www.bebr.ufl.edu/bebr-products/series/Florida%20County%20Population%20Projections), which is the original source of this estimate, the 200,000 population increase by 2040 in Pinellas is the "high" growth scenario. The medium scenario has Pinellas stagnant, and the low growth scenario, a similar likelihood as the high growth, Pinellas actually LOSES nearly 200,000 in the same time frame. 

Greenlight Pinellas should be using the "medium" scenario for population forecasts, which is the scenario the researchers state "believe will generally provide the most accurate forecasts of future population change." 

I should note the Tribune routinely uses 600,000 or less when reporting the forecasted growth for Hillsborough by 2040, which is the "medium" scenario in the cited study. 

Greenlight Pinellas is intentionally misleading in their “education” efforts, as the “most accurate” population forecast offers less compelling justification for their case. 

The Tribune is not performing a public service by mindlessly printing Greenlight Pinellas misleading talking points.

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Here are the University of Florida population estimates for Pinellas from their Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research link above:

	2012	2015	2020	2025	2030	2035	2040
PINELLAS	920,381
Low		865,700	839,400	812,800	786,000	759,000	731,800	Loss of 188,581
Medium		921,000	922,400	923,600	924,700	925,600	926,400	Increase of 6,019
High		976,300	1,005,400	1,034,500	1,063,400	1,092,200	1,120,900	Increase of 171,189

As the study states, the medium forecast is probably the most accurate.  Is a stagnant population growth over the next 25 years in Pinellas a warning sign about building a high cost light rail system?