County Center: Stop Waging War On Small Business, Taxpayers and Move County Center Out of Downtown Tampa

The Eye headed to the Hillsborough County Commission meeting last week. Downtown Tampa is one big logistical headache to get to anywhere in downtown, park in downtown and get around in downtown.

Hillsborough County government needs to move out of downtown Tampa and provide much better access to County services. Downtown Tampa has become a mobility and parking nightmare. That is not fair to residents in unincorporated Hillsborough who need better access to County Services but are forced to go to County Center in downtown Tampa.

Residents of unincorporated Hillsborough should start demanding the County move out of the mausoleum building in downtown Tampa aka County Center.

Here is one suggestion. Hillsborough County owns the MOSI property on Fowler Avenue and MOSI is moving downtown. Swap places. The county could move county services to the MOSI property they own which is more centrally located with access between 2 interstate highways. The County can sell the County Center building. We know the city of Tampa wants more office towers - here's one ready to rent.

When we finally got to County Center, the March 4 BOCC meeting was a plethora of actions to shut down small business and raise taxes.

Listen to our latest podcast as we discuss how the county needs to get out of downtown Tampa and  stop waging a war on small business and the taxpayers.

According to Hillsborough County, more than 90% of all commercial ventures are small businesses. However, if this commission does not like your industry or business or they find one bad apple, they will punish everyone instead of addressing the bad apple.

Higher taxes hurts small businesses the most and having the highest sales tax rate in the state will hurt them even more.

Sales Tax Map Courtesy of WTSP

At just this one meeting, the Hillsborough County commission took actions to punish the entire pet retail industry, take choices away from their constituents, put another one percent 30 year $16B transit tax on the November ballot, eliminate clarity and transparency to voters and hold county roads hostage to funding costly rail in the city of Tampa

Considering the commissioners meet every 2 weeks, what other harm is this county commission doing to their own constituents and the residents/taxpayers of Hillsborough County?