Taxation without Representation For Unincorporated Hillsborough As Tax Hike Committee Stacked With Appointees Who Reside in City of Tampa

Warning signals went out prior to the election raising numerous issues with the All for Transportation 30 year $16 Billion tax hike. Those warnings included what All For Transportation (AFT) touted as their "Independent Oversight Committee" (IOC).

AFT, a political committee, defined enumerated powers in their 5 page tax hike charter amendment to unelected bureaucrats on the IOC who are accountable to no one. AFT empowered the IOC to be the ultimate approver/disapprover for all transportation projects to be funded by AFT's $16 Billion tax hike.

Commissioner Stacy White sounded warnings before the election in his October 18th press release that the IOC can be stacked with members not from the areas where the majority of the AFT taxes will be paid. In other words there was a good chance that the IOC will be stacked with those who live in the city of Tampa when over 2/3 of the population lives in unincorporated Hillsborough.


And Surprise! The 13 member IOC got stacked.

Seven of the 13 (or 54%) of the IOC members reside in the city of Tampa but none reside in New Tampa. Three of the 13 (or 23%) of the IOC members reside in Plant City, the smallest municipality in Hillsborough who does not pay HART property taxes and is not a member of HART.

Only two of the 13 (or 15%) of the IOC members reside in unincorporated Hillsborough, one in Lithia and one in Westchase.

When the city of Tampa reaches a population of 400K, which will occur after the 2020 census, the city of Tampa will automatically get another appointee. Then eight of the 14 IOC members (or 57%) will reside in the city of Tampa.

While the vast majority (almost 75%) of the $16 Billion AFT tax proceeds will be paid by those who reside in unincorporated Hillsborough, unincorporated only has 15% of the representation on the IOC. While the City of Tampa will pay about 22% of the tax proceeds, they have 54%, the majority representation on the IOC

HART's property taxes are overwhelmingly paid for by taxpayers in unincorporated Hillsborough while the majority of HART's transit services are in the city of Tampa. Plant City does not pay HART property taxes.

AFT mandates that 45% ($7-8 Billion ) of the $16 Billion AFT tax be spent on transit when less than 2% use transit in Hillsborough County. AFT mandates that $2-3 Billion of that 45% must be spent on costly rail/fixed guideways transit. Those costly rail/transit projects are in the city of Tampa but they will be paid for by taxpayers in unincorporated.

The AFT tax hike is a power grab by the city of Tampa and downtown developers to control transportation spending in Hillsborough County for 30 years to benefit them. The stacked IOC creates an extreme disproportional and lop-sided representation for the vast majority who reside in unincorporated Hillsborough County.

The stacked IOC is a sham. It is not what it was purported to be by AFT.

AFT posted on their own Facebook page they were putting together the members of their committee. 

AFT's committee was never intended to be "Independent". The IOC was meant to be stacked.

Chalk up another big mess to AFT.

Taxation without Representation!