Priorities
No money for the homeless (an elite group that has little to pay), but a new $40 million sports complex? No problem.
Today is the first time in five years commissioners are divvying some of the half-cent sales tax, with nearly $350 million up for grabs. The tax is expected to generate $4.8 billion before expiring in 2027.
Proposed projects in this funding round include $66 million for a 768-bed expansion of Falkenburg Road Jail, $50 million for stormwater drainage improvements and $40 million for an amateur sports complex backed by commission Chairman Jim Norman.
......Commissioner Kathy Castor said the project list has not received as much public input or planning as earlier funding rounds. She suggested commissioners might want to consider postponing today's vote.
Norman's proposed Championship Park is likely to get the most attention.
......Former Commissioner Joe Chillura authored the 1996 CIT referendum to help build the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' football stadium and pay for schools and other "public facilities" and infrastructure. He supports Championship Park.
"It is basically serving the general public," Chillura said. "It fills the bill more than a history center or art museum, which serve an elitist group that has little to say and little to pay."
Plans call for a 22,000-seat football and soccer arena, a baseball field with stands for 3,000 and a track that could accommodate another 1,500 spectators. Along with practice fields, the complex would be built on 425 acres off State Road 39 about 3 miles north of Interstate 4 on property the county owns known as the Cone Ranch.
......Commissioners have committed all of the money from the Community Investment Tax through 2008. But county finance officials expect the tax to raise another $1.4-billion from 2008 through 2026 that has not been committed.
......Tampa Bay Water owns the rights to pump water from much of the 12,000-acre Cone Ranch property, which it may do in the future. Hillsborough County has fought those plans, fearing damage from the pumping in an area that helps replenish the Hillsborough River.
Castor said she felt such a facility should be built in an area where growth is taking place and expressed concern about such intensive development in a rural area.
"This is a very interesting idea," she said. "I'm concerned that we undermine our argument about the environmental sensitivity of this area."
......The center isn't intended as a corner ball field for recreational league softball or pick-up games, he said. It is meant to attract players and teams from sanctioned leagues that come to town, stay in hotels and bring their tourist dollars with them.
Yeah, the general public. Well, the general part of the public that is not at all concerned about drinking water and rampant piecemeal over development of environmentally sensitive lands.
September 21st, 2005 - 06:57
Joe Chillura is a walking, talking penis. To expect anything more from him is futile.