What do The Tea Party, GreenLight and you have in
common?
Well, if you are opposed to a 1% increase in the sales
tax, a $2.2 Billion train from downtown St. Pete to downtown Clearwater and a
90 year mortgage on Pinellas County you will pay for; by definition of the high
rollers that want to see this tax passed, you are a right wing, wacky extremist,
Tea Party activist.
It is interesting how the GreenLight -Yes people are
trying desperately trying to tie opposition of this sales tax boondoggle to
extremists. One of the major tenants of politics is if your cause or issue has
no merit then try to deflect attention to something that scares people.
If you have been following No Tax for Tracks
for the last few months, you will notice the message has not changed. The Sales
Tax is bad idea, the train is a worse idea and the expansion of bus service is
not a promise it is a ploy. The message continues: PSTA is poorly run, easily
violates the law, is not efficient and is more self serving than public
serving.
GreenLight Pinellas has whipsawed on their message.
Originally they included" transportation oriented development" in
their goals, but let that one quietly slip away when it became clear that 30 or
so high rollers from real
estate, finance, consulting, Duke Energy and the sports teams were really funding this effort redevelop
South Pinellas County to the tune of over $800,000.
Transportation redevelopment is all about carving up
Pinellas County so a bunch of special interests can make ton of money most of
it from your tax dollars.
If you live in North Pinellas County you will get a
couple of buses, maybe, from GreenLight.
If you live on the Beaches you basically get very
little more from GreenLight Pinellas.
If you live in South Pinellas County you get to see the
high rollers carve a snaking path through our streets and neighborhoods that
basically avoids the areas where public transportation users live, buying and
selling property, taking property, building multimillion dollar train stops,
laying tracks that will snarl traffic increasing congestion and doing it with
your tax dollars.
All for a train
that will be obsolete before it is finished and few will ever ride.
One thing we all do have in common we will get to pay
and pay and pay for up to 90
years according to the PSTA/Pinellas County Interlocal Agreement.
If all of this sounds a little silly, if not stupid,
then you are not an extremist you are a realist.
Right now, when it comes to public transportation in
Pinellas County, you are in the driver's seat. You can put a stop to GreenLight
just like they did in Hillsborough County and send the planners back to the
drawing board.
Simply grab your ballot go to the County Referendum Question and vote NO
E-mail
Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or
send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be
sure to share on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.
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