Showing posts with label Kevin Thurman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Thurman. Show all posts

Monday, October 22, 2018

Fraudulent Transit Plan Skewered at Tampa NAACP Meeting: They Will Vote ‘No’

There is one group in Hillsborough County that Jeff Vinik can’t buy.
The Vinik-inspired sales tax referendum came under heavy fire Thursday night when Tampa’s African American community attacked it as vague, promoting unwanted gentrification, and a bailout for development interests at the expense of the working poor.
Vinik’s three stooges—Rena Frazier, Brian Willis, and Michael Stephens—were envisioned by their boss as glib emissaries.  At the end of the evening, the trio were tongue-tied and nonplused by incisive questioning and criticism over Vinik’s hidden agenda.
Tampa Bay Beat has learned from two independent sources that certain people close to the NAACP were offered cash to wheedle an endorsement of what amounts to a multi-billion dollar taxpayer swindle. 
Tyler Hudson, Vinik’s point man in the grossly misnamed All For Transportation (AFT) effort, sat grim faced in the audience as criticism from Tampa’s black community rained down on the plan.  Cristina Barker, Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s former protegé on loan to Vinik, sat frowning and scribbling notes. Kevin Thurman, the fourth stooge and relegated to the audience, ineptly tried to explain the glaring flaws in the $15 billion, 30-year developer bailout which would make Hillsborough County the Florida county with the highest sales tax.
No local media were in apparent attendance.
By Jim Bleyer

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Hillsborough Tax Hike To Fund Transit Is Looking Shaky

The petition itself violates state law, and the overall effort is sloppy in matters large 
and small.
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By  Tom Rask Tampa Bay Guardian

Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Sierra Club, Tea Party Love Fest

Kevin Thurman of Connect Tampa Bay, a transit advocacy group, said he hopes the Sierra Club executive committee members who voted on the statement consulted their membership before advocating for a gas tax for road maintenance.
"I find it very concerning and upsetting that the Sierra Club would require a tax for more money for roads before getting more money for transit," Thurman said he was also surprised to see the Sierra Club moving away from partnerships with transit groups and aligning itself with the tea party.