Sign Up to Speak at a BOCC Meeting

 HERE

Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners votes to preserve Arts Council funding

The Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners rejected a proposal to defund the Arts Council during a meeting Thursday. The ruling is a win for local arts and culture groups that benefit from the county’s funding.....MORE

Hillsborough County Commissioners Seek Applications For Citizen Boards, Councils

Hillsborough County Commissioners are seeking residents to serve on several County citizen advisory boards and councils. Residents interested in seeking an appointment must reside in and be registered voters in Hillsborough County.....More info HERE

Tampa's Fearless Foursome

PAT KEMP - MARIELLA SMITH

Gwen Miller - Kim Overman

Hillsborough County’s Community Land Trust

There has been a major push from the faith community and other community activist groups to whittle away at Hillsborough County’s affordable housing crisis that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic and recent skyrocketing rents. here

GOP Sandy Murman Fact Check

In her new attack ad she claims Commissioner Pat Kemp is texting lobbyist, May we see
 proof of this.

She claims she is ethical....

Florida Ethics Commission Investigation

HERE

Campaign contributions from developer

HERE

LEARN MORE ABOUT SANDY MURMAN

HERE

Hillsborough County Corporate Welfare: $15.5 Million

On July 15, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners, by a vote of 6 to 1, approved a proposal from the Tampa Sports Authority (TSA) to spend $10.4 million of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act money to implement Corona Virus safety measures at Raymond James Stadium.

The beneficiaries: the Tampa Bay Bucs, a highly profitable private company, who would be able to have more fans attend their games.

Well, we can’t have the Lightning and the Yankees (both also highly profitable private companies) feeling left out.

So early this month the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners, once again by a vote of 6 to1 (Stacy White being the only ‘no’ vote) approved a total of $4.1 million of CARES money for Amalie Arena and George M. Steinbrenner Field for safety improvements related to Corona Virus.  $2.4 million will go to Amalie Arena and $1.7 million will go to Steinbrenner Field. MORE

The total of CARES money given to professional sports franchises in Tampa is now $15.5 million.  One has to wonder how many small businesses in Hillsborough County, with legitimate and pressing needs, have been unable to get even a dime of this money.

TBCN Students Thank the Hillsborough County BOCC

Hillsborough County Needle Exchange Program

Hillsborough County Commissioners are establishing the first ever needle exchange program in its history. 

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The vote was 5 to 1,  Stacy White was 

the lone dissenter. HERE

Hillsborough County Commissioners got taken by Amazon

Back in 2013 commissioners gave Amazon $225,000 in  Corporate Welfare to build a center in Ruskin. HERE

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 Murman likened the Amazon deal to a business hurricane. "It can really give us that long term that we need," she said, "and this will be feeder bands, you know we talk a lot of about hurricanes, this is our hurricane because the feeder bands that will come off of this
will be unbelievable."

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AOC got hers for free!
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “waiting on the haters to apologize” after Amazon said it would open up corporate offices in New York City to house more than 1,500 employees. The announcement from the internet giant came less than a year after it abruptly dropped plans to build a second headquarters in the city following backlash to the some $3 billion in financial incentives that the government had offered to woo the company. HERE
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“Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway - *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

 More here

Hillsborough County, Florida Corruption

Even here women get less

HERE

Amount is for yes vote on rezoning only, 

other projects are negotiable. 

Fight GOP Corruption In Tampa

Tomorrow 9AM 

Hillsborough County Center

Downtown Tampa INFO

Let the humiliation begin!

Untainted Hillsborough County Commissioners

The Hillsborough MPO voted 11-5 to keep TBNext (TBX) on the Transportation Improvement Program. This move will keep TBNext in line to one day receive state funding and get built.

Commissioner Mariella Smith's response to the Tampa Bay Times

The Times wrote, “There is no reason local taxpayers should be paying for express service to MacDill” — by ferry. Yet they have never said that we should stop funding the express service to MacDill by bus, and ferry service is quicker and more efficient. HART’s 3 express bus lines from South County to MacDill transported 121,926 riders last year. These are the only express routes to see consistent increases in ridership, with a combined 10.5% growth in the past year. The demand for commuter transit services to MacDill is great.

Every day 18,000 people stream into MacDill Air Force Base. Most of them have no other choice but to drive a car alone to the base. The Ferry will not only provide a quicker, more direct route for commuters to MacDill, it will also remove thousands of cars from the roads during rush hour, from South County to Bayshore, making commutes easier for other drivers and reducing pollution and wear and tear on our roads.

I don’t understand why the Times singles out the workers of MacDill as any less deserving of public transit options than any other commuters. We should strive to provide mass transit wherever we can identify any large group of commuters regularly traveling from one area to another, regardless of whether those people are working at a private company, a public agency, or a military base. The MacDill route is a great place to start commuter service by ferry.

Meanwhile, the evening and weekend service connecting South County to Tampa and St. Pete will provide transit service to South County — an underserved area that has so far not seen much benefit from the tax dollars they contribute to our transportation system. This is why I constantly hear a lot of enthusiasm expressed for this ferry service in South County. And the high ridership numbers from the Cross-Bay Ferry Pilot Project definitely justify increasing ferry service on the Tampa – St. Pete route.

We have been working on this high-speed ferry transit project for 6 years now. No one has come up with a better plan, and no ferry company has offered us a better deal than the current offer by HMS Ferries’ commitment to pay all the operating costs for 20 years.

If we proceed with this ferry project, it can be the start of more robust ferry service in our future. But if naysaying and foot-dragging finally sinks this ferry project, odds are we will not see another opportunity to have ferry transit crossing Tampa Bay for decades to come.

Mariella Smith

Don't let the Hillsborough County Commission Be Fooled By Charter Schools

HELP KEMP AND SMITH

April 3, 2019 at 8:30 AM

601 E. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa

INFO

TECO Revolt in Riverview

The Judge 

Commissioner Pat Kemp

Commissioner Mariella Smith

Topher Morrison

TECO Lawyers

Riverview, Florida