Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on transportation tax:

TRANSPORTATION

Hillsborough commissioners vote 4-3 to reject transportation sales tax

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff

Published: April 27, 2016

Updated: April 28, 2016 at 06:03 AM

TAMPA — A three-hour hearing Wednesday night ended in disappointment for transit advocates as Hillsborough County Commissioners voted 4-3 against putting a half-cent-per-dollar sales tax for transportation before voters on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Commissioners Sandy Murman, Victor Crist, Stacy White and Al Higginbotham, all Republicans, voted against both a 30-year and a 20-year tax, leaving the county’s transportation future in limbo. Democrats Les Miller and Kevin Beckner were joined by Republican Ken Hagan in voting for the referendum.

As expected, Crist was the swing vote, saying he made his decision during the three-hour meeting.

“Frankly, the decision I made tonight was not based on data, it was not based on one thing I heard,” Crist said. “It was just old-fashioned intuition.”

He said he counted 31 speakers for the tax, 31 against it.

Murman said she could not vote for an “all or nothing” tax of 30-year duration when the county’s project list to be financed by the tax lasted only 10 years. When it was clear she was voting against the tax, opponents in the audience started to cheer. She motioned for them to stop.

“We should not be rejoicing because we need to go back and keep working on this,” Murman said. “Back to the drawing board.”

The public hearing drew 100 to 200 people, split about evenly between supporters and opponents. More than 60 people spoke to the commission and each side applauded speakers with whom they agreed. Many of the opponents of the measure wore red shirts with stickers affixed that had the word “Tax” encircled and a line slashed through it. Some of the speakers said they were from Pinellas County, where they led efforts to kill the Greenlight Pinellas transportation referendum in 2014.

Opponents urged commissioners not to saddle their children and grandchildren with a 30-year tax.

“I don’t want my grandchildren strapped with a tax that they will be paying for the majority of their lives,” said Shirley Wood. “A bad plan like this should never be put on the ballot.”

Len Mead wore a tri-cornered hat with the emblem, “Taxed enough Already.” Mead said the county was “swimming in taxes.”

“I looked at your own figures,” Mead said. “Unfortunately, you’re only spending 3 percent of your budget on transportation. Look at the average of all the counties in Florida. They’re spending 30 percent of their budget on transportation.”

A number of members of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce turned out to speak in favor of the tax. The chamber board endorsed the tax in the past two weeks, saying a revitalized transportation system is necessary to compete for high wage jobs.

The vote was the culmination of a process that started more than three years ago when county commissioners unanimously agreed to form a policy group on transportation. This Policy Leadership Group included the seven commissioners plus the mayors of Hillsborough’s three cities and the chairman of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit board.

The idea was to get buy-in from all corners of the 1,000-square-mile county — urban and rural, city and unincorporated county. County officials sought to avoid the fractures that doomed a 2010 Hillsborough transportation referendum — a plan that rural and suburban dwellers saw as focused primarily on light rail for Tampa.

Starting in early 2015, the new transportation initiative got a name — Go Hillsborough — and under that banner, an unprecedented public outreach campaign went forward. County officials held 86 public workshops attended by 2,853 people.

County leaders spoke about the need for additional money to fund transportation. Tens of thousands more county residents made their feelings known during four telephone town halls, or visited the Go Hillsborough website to learn more.

The comments were integrated with the county’s $8 billion backlog of needed projects — new and widened road roads, resurfacing of existing roads, bridge repairs and sidewalks.