Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on transportation plan:

More transit needed in Hillsborough County transportation plan, Commissioner Murman says

• Steve Contorno, Times Staff Writer

Monday, October 17, 2016 1:46pm

TAMPA — Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman wants more money to go toward transit projects when commissioners decide this week how to spend the $600 million they set aside for transportation.

The proposal on the table would mostly direct the money to repave streets, improve safety at intersections and near schools, and alleviate congestion by widening and adding roads in unincorporated Hillsborough County.

“Basically, it’s a list of roads,” Murman said.

Murman said she will lobby to set aside some money for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, the government agency that operates the county’s bus service, to expand transit options. She singled out adding circulator service as one potential avenue for those funds.

She also said a proposed ferry that would connect south Tampa and MacDill Airforce Base to Apollo Beach “needs to be in play.”

The ferry is a project that has been pushed heavily by Ed Turanchik, the former commissioner-turned-lobbyist who represents the companies trying to bring water transportation to Tampa Bay. Turanchik worked closely with Murman to help kill the failed half-cent tax increase for transportation and together they authored a proposal to instead use growth in property tax revenue to pay for roads and transit needs here.

That proposal, however, was rejected by the majority of commissioners because it was based on speculative revenue forecasts and drew criticism from bond and financial advisers. Instead, commissioners voted to set aside $600 million for transportation over the next 10 years from a variety of revenue sources.

“We’re going to spend a lot of money with no transit,” Murman said. “Had we adopted my plan we would’ve had enough revenue for transit.”

That, however, was not a given. Under Murman’s proposal and the alternative that eventually passed, the 10-year commitment was likely not enough to unleash the federal dollars needed to build expensive transit projects.

HART CEO Katharine Eagan said at the time that it would have been difficult under Murman’s plan to expand service because there was no annual commitment. For HART to add bus lines, for example, it needs assurance that the money will be there for more than one year otherwise it’s just an unfunded mandate. Under Murman’s plan, though, HART would have to ask the county for money every year with no guarantee commissioners would say, “yes.”

Instead, the county is planning to use much of the $600 million to tackle the backlog of maintenance and safety projects. It’s largely the same list that made up the Go Hillsborough plan, but without the transit.

Commissioners unanimously approved that project list earlier this year.

Murman didn’t say how she would vote Wednesday (her comments were left in a voicemail late Friday). However, she sounded like she was of the mind to move forward now and tweak later.

“We have so many maintenance needs, capacity needs, safety needs for our roads,” Murman said, “and those do need to be started immediately.”

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Patch.com article on her job fair:

Date Announced for Commissioner Murman’s County Job Fair

Jobs are available for residents across Hillsborough County.

By Chloe Morales (Patch Staff) – October 3, 2016 5:27 pm ET

From Hillsborough County:

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, in association with CareerSource Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Community College, will host a County Job Fair from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 7, at the Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry Campus, Student Services Building, 4001 W. Tampa Bay Blvd., Tampa, FL 33614.

Also in association with CareerSource Tampa Bay, Commissioner Murman will be hosting a Virtual County Job Fair on the same day from 1 to 5 p.m. During this time a special web page will provide job seekers throughout Hillsborough County a resource to apply for jobs that were featured at the morning event.

County Job Fair: 8:30 a.m. to noon at HCC Dale Mabry Campus

More than 50 employers and vendors are expected to participate, some who will interview potential employees on the spot, while others will provide online links to jobs. These employers have hundreds of positions available in both part time and full time work.

“We are very excited this year to have employers like Bay Care Health Systems, HMS Host, Busch Gardens, LabCorp, General Dynamics IT, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, US Foods, Macy’s and many more. The most important thing that we can do in County Government is to help our unemployed or under employed citizens to find jobs. When more people are working, more people are saving and spending money at local businesses, and the economy continues to improve,” said Commissioner Murman.

Currently, the following businesses have confirmed for the event:

• Hillsborough County Public Utilities
• Hillsborough County BOCC
• The Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women
• Bay Care Health System
• Busch Gardens
• Tampa Armature Works
• Goodwill Industries/Goodwill Temporary Staffing
• Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative
• VetCor LLC
• MacDill Army Exchange – AAFES
• Total Wine & More
• Massey Services
• Florida State Fair Authority
• Quest Inc.
• LabCorp – Laboratory Corporation of America
• De Almenara Allstate Agency
• GTE Financial
• General Dynamics Information Technologies
• ReedTMS Logistics
• Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits
• US Foods
• Childcare Careers
• Computer Generated Solutions
• Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
• Troy University
• Burger King/Jan Companies
• Customer Driven Staffing
• Macy’s Logistics & Operations
• Senior Lifestyle Corp
• Bright Horizons Family Solutions
• LaSalle Computer Learning Center
• CareerSource Tampa Bay
• HMS Host
• IT Authorities
• DACCO
• NAPA Auto Parts
• Phillips Pet Food & Supplies
• Agency for Community Treatment Services (ACTS)
• The Car Park, Inc. Channelside
• The Westin Tampa Bay
• HH Staffing
• McKibbon Hospitality
• Magic in the Sky
• Hillsborough County Social Services Department
• Convergys
• Talon Innovations
• Hillsborough County Department of Consumer & Veterans Services
• C & S Wholesale Grocers
• Brookdale Senior Living
• Amazon
• Mosaic
• Nielsen

The 2016 County Job Fair is free and open to the public. For more information call Astrid Mosterd at CareerSource Tampa Bay at (813) 397-2090 or email Astrid atmosterda@careersourcetampabay.com.

For a current listing of employers participating in the County Job Fair, access Commissioner Murman’s website and click on the “Job Fair 2016” tab.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on Howard Frankland toll lanes:

We asked 14 local officials if they knew the Howard Frankland was losing a free lane. Only four did.

• ByCaitlin Johnston and Divya Kumar, Times Staff Writer

Thursday, September 29, 2016 11:26am

Confusion is swirling around the Florida Department of Transportation’s plan to replace the northbound span of the Howard Frankland Bridge.

The state is converting one of the four lanes in each direction to a toll lane, leaving one fewer free lane for people to drive on.

Officials said this doesn’t reduce the road’s capacity because the outside lane in each direction is currently an “auxiliary lane” that’s meant to connect on- and off- ramps, not to carry traffic between Tampa and St. Petersburg.

But politicians whom the Tampa Bay Times told about the plan last week said they felt misled by the agency, which had also talked about adding additional lanes for the tolls. DOT officials said the plan was always to convert a lane.

The Times asked 14 additional local elected officials this week to explain what they thought DOT was doing when it rebuilds the bridge in 2019. Ten said they thought DOT was adding an additional lane to the bridge. Four said they knew the plan was to convert an existing lane. A 15th official said he couldn’t recall knowing either way.

Here’s the breakdown.

State Rep. Ed Narain, D-Tampa, was surprised to hear DOT’s plan.

“I always understood it as there was additional capacity added.” He didn’t agree with the state’s characterization of how the outside lane is used. “It’s definitely not an auxiliary lane.”

State Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, felt misled.

“I never thought they would be reducing the capacity of traffic. … It’s already bad enough. They don’t call it the Howard Frankenstein for nothing.”

Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-South Pasadena, never expected to lose a free lane.

“I don’t have a high confidence level in the plan if they’re going to cut down a lane.”

Hillsborough County Commissioner and Metropolitan Planning Organization Member Sandy Murman, Republican, said this version was news to her.

She does not approve of tolls on the Howard Frankland. “I think that would kill our economic development efforts and our regional efforts.”

Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano, a Republican, called the plan a “joke.”

“When they take these lanes and call them fancy names like managed lanes, they’re clearly trying to disguise something.”

State Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, wants DOT to pull the plug on the plan.

“It’s outrageous. It’s wrong. It’s not what will help this region.”

Tampa City Council member Lisa Montelione, a Democrat, said no one on the Hillsborough MPO realized this.

“It is interesting that there are 16 of us and none of us caught that particular nuance.”

Four local officials — three from Pinellas County — said they knew this was the plan all along.

St. Petersburg City Council member and Pinellas MPO member Jim Kennedy, a Democrat, said he was “surprised at people being surprised.”

“They were very clear that what they’re referring to as an auxiliary lane … which I think everybody looks at as a through traffic lane on the bridge, was going to become a tolled lane.” He opposes the plan.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, a Democrat, said the plan isn’t perfect but something needs to be done.

“I hate to see this be another project where we had an opportunity to do something and we turned the money down trying to wait for perfection.” He supports the plan.

Clearwater City Council member and Pinellas MPO member Doreen Caudell, Republican, said DOT isn’t taking away a lane

“It does not slow down traffic or reduce lanes. …They’re adding an express toll lane. An express lane is a toll lane. You have to pay for it.” She supports the plan.

State Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he knew DOT planned to convert a lane, but called it “controversial.”

“I’ve also been under the impression that before the DOT pulls the trigger on any action there will be additional opportunities for dialogue.” He thinks the bridge is “probably not going to end up with toll facilities.”

Several other officials echoed that there are more steps before construction begins.

State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, said the plan is still changing.

“FDOT will build what we tell them to build. If the public wants additional lanes and additional capacity, then they will put on as much capacity as we fund them to put on.” He supports Tampa Bay Express, but his discussions with DOT about the proposed plans for the Howard Frankland Bridge always included adding capacity.

State Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater, said officials and community members need to voice their concerns.

“To the extent we can put pressure on DOT to oppose, we will.”

State Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, urged residents to attend next week’s public hearings.

“I feel pretty confident there will be an outcry over this.”

In previous stories, the Times has quoted two Hillsborough county commissioners, one Tampa city council member and State Sen. Jack Latvala saying they thought the plan was to add a lane.

DOT officials didn’t respond to a request for comment on the new officials’ statements Wednesday. They will present this plan to the public during two hearings next week: one Tuesday at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park and another Thursday at the Tampa Marriott Westshore. Both start at 5:30 p.m.

Times staff writer Sara DiNatale contributed to this report. Contact Caitlin Johnston at cjohnston@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8779. Follow @cljohnst.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on her upcoming job fair:

Murman stages job fair at HCC Dale Mabry

• Times staff

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 2:06pm

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, in association with CareerSource Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Community College, will host a county job fair from 8:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 7 at Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry Campus, 4001 W Tampa Bay Blvd.

More than 50 employers and vendors are expected to attend. Businesses scheduled to participate include Hillsborough County Public Utilities, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, the Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women, BayCare Health System, Busch Gardens, Argos USA, Tampa Armature Works, Goodwill Industries/Goodwill Temporary Staffing, Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, VetCor LLC, MacDill Army Exchange — AAFES, Total Wine & More, Quest Inc.

“The most important thing that we can do in county government is to help our unemployed or underemployed citizens to find jobs,” Murman said in a media release. “When more people are working, more people are saving and spending money at local businesses, and the economy continues to improve.”

Some employers will interview potential employees on the spot, while others will provide online links to jobs. These employers have hundreds of positions available in both part-time and full-time work.

For more information call, (813) 397-2090 or visit, careersourcetampabay.com.

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this StPetersBlog article on Café con Tampa:

Sandy Murman takes a victory lap on approval of $600 million in transportation improvements

MITCH PERRY

Although Sandy Murman considers the $600 million in funding for transportation improvements over the next decade that her County Commission colleagues recently approved as a weaker version of her original proposal, she doesn’t mind taking credit for it. “I will tell you, and I’m being very honest. If it hadn’t been for me bringing my new plan forward, we would not have $600 million in transportation approved a couple of weeks ago,” she said on Friday morning.

Murman’s comment at the weekly “Cafe Con Tampa” event at Hugo’s in Tampa’s Hyde Park generated applause among the approximately twenty people in attendance.  Murman’s original proposal, formed in the wake of the Board of County Commission’s rejection of the Go Hillsborough transportation referendum, called for dedicating one-third of any growth in property and sales taxes to transportation, which would have raised approximately $800 million for road repairs and other fixes over the next decade. “I didn’t get it,” she says about the board’s refusal to get completely behind her proposal. They ultimately coalesced around the $600 million alternative proposed by Commissioner Al Higginbotham.

Murman had served as the BOCC’s chair for several years, but was stripped of her position last November shortly after she first spoke out against supporting the Go Hillsborough Plan and offered up her alternative transportation plan. The proposal was mocked critically, but months later, the board would ultimately twice reject putting the transportation referendum on the ballot.

The Davis Islands Republican addressed a multitude of issues in her hour-long appearance before the weekly Friday morning club, but she spent considerable time on transportation. First elected to the board in 2010, she is running for reelection again this fall for the District 1 seat,  where she faces Democrat Jeff Zampitella in November.

 Murman repeated something that she has said since she came out against the Go Hillsborough plan: that there will still be a need in the coming years for the board to put a transportation referendum on the ballot, but work needs to be done before getting there. “I think you do them when you’re ready.”

“Will we will never have enough money in our current budget…to answer the need for this growing community,” she added. Hillsborough County is expected to increase by over 300,000 people in the next five years. “We will have to make an investment at some point.”

Murman serves on the HART board, and she says she actually is one such member who supports the proposal first offered four years ago by Clearwater state Senator Jack Latvala to combine Hillsborough’s transit agency with its equivalent in Pinellas, PSTA. “I think a regional system makes sense. I think for any investment the public makes into transit, regional is where we need to be focused, to make it cost effective.” She also supports a regional Metropolitan Planning Organization. “We’ve got to start thinking smarter.”

Referring to Latvala’s elevation to Appropriations Chairman and St. Petersburg Republican Jeff Brandes continued role as Senate Transportation head, Murman said now is the time for Tampa Bay state lawmakers to bring home some of the bacon that for far too long has gone to other major metropolitan areas of Florida. Referring to her eight years (1996-2004) in the Florida House, Murman said, “I watched the Brinks truck pull up from Miami and Orlando and loaded it up with the money to go back to those communities. And they are much further ahead than we are.”

Murman says she wants to address the county’s land-use and affordable housing policies next year, saying that creating more incentives for developers will go a long way to improving both those items. She says she will propose a checklist that every single development going forward to check on how it will affect transportation and schools. And she says that unless incentives are given to developers to create affordable housing units, it simply won’t happen. “If we don’t get it done, we’re not going to get it done, and this community will still be lost in its policies going forward,” she grimly forecast.

Regarding the controversial Public Transportation Commission, like most local Republicans, she says she’d like to see it abolished, though emphasized that she did not want the BOCC to replace it as a regulatory body.

While Murman said she championed small businesses in the county, one member of the audience challenged her, referring to the BOCC’s approving a $6.25 million subsidy to lure a Bass Pro Shops chain store to the county in 2013. That subsidy was and issue put front and center by Democrat Pat Kemp in her ultimately unsuccessful election bid against Al Higginbotham in 2014. Murman expressed zero regrets for her vote, saying that the county’s return on investment will come back within three years. And she said that there are plenty of incentive programs to help small businesses.

On a proposed baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, Murman was emphatic: “If you’r going to use any public dollars at all, there has to be a level of transparency so the public can be assured that we’re not going to get into a situation like we did with Go Hillsborough, where things were too left behind the scenes.” She added that she had “trust and faith” in the leadership of the Rays to do things “in a very clean way.” Murman agreed with 83 Degrees editor Diane Egner that if public dollars are being spent on the facility, it should have a component to it that allows the public to use it, and suggested sports medicine or magnet school on the property.

Former County Commissioner Ed Turnanchik, who was in the audience, said that back in the 90’s when he served on the board, it the board ended up being involved in funding Raymond James Stadium, Steinbrenner Field and Amalie Arena, and said that wasn’t a priority any longer. “I can’t see spending one dime of general revenue on a baseball stadium when traffic conditions are like they re in SoHo,” he said, “it’s just not a priority to use general revenues.”

Although several people clapped in support, another audience member disagreed and said that a downtown stadium that runs near CSX lines would be the best location. Murman said she agreed, adding she also likes the possibility of building a park in the Westshore area.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on a regional sewer and stormwater task force:

Hillsborough commissioners propose regional task force on sewage spills

By Richard Danielson Times Staff Writer

Published: September 21, 2016

Updated: September 21, 2016 at 05:40 PM

Hillsborough County commissioners voted Wednesday to propose a regional task force to discuss how storm-driven flooding threatens to overwhelm local sewer systems.

“We’ve talked about regional approaches to a lot of different things,” said commissioner Sandra Murman, who proposed having Hillsborough utilities officials talk with their counterparts in surrounding counties and cities. “I think we need to look at a longer-term plan going down the road to prevent these spillages and other incidents from happening.”

Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission officials said water quality samples taken from 108 sites around the bay, including some in Pinellas County and close to St. Petersburg, since Hurricane Hermine have found levels of bacteria that are a little above average but still below state standards.

“The story here is not much a bacteria story because of the size of the bay, because of the recirculation and the flushing of the bay,” said Sam Elrabi, the EPC’s water division director. Tampa Bay flushes itself out completely as often as every nine days and at least every 30 days.

In the long run, elevated levels of nutrients in the bay could stress sea grass beds or trigger algae blooms or red tide, but Elrabi said it would be difficult to tie one of those to a specific event that had taken place six months earlier.

Hillsborough County Public Utilities director George Cassady said the county’s sewer system came through Hermine without discharging any waste, but he noted that Hillsborough got a lot less rain than Pinellas.

“We did very well in the storm,” Cassady said. “We’re fortunate in one regard that our systems are robust enough that they have the capacity … to be able to hold larger volumes of water associated with the storms.”

Hillsborough’s system also is much newer than Tampa’s or St. Petersburg’s, which means fewer problems with cracked pipes that allow stormwater to get in and overwhelm storage and treatment facilities. And the county has invested in system upgrades over the last five years.

That said, Cassady said, one of Hermine’s feeder bands sat over Pinellas County for a long time.

“If that same thing had happened to us, it’s very likely that one or more of our treatment plants might have been overwhelmed,” Cassady said. “I don’t know that any system would be capable of handling 36 hours of continuous rainfall.”

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Creative Loafing article on transportation:

After years of debate, Hillsborough approves $600 million for transportation over the next decade

ZEBRINA EDGERTON-MALOY

 SEP. 9, 2016 1:20 P.M.

Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to approve Commissioner Al Higginbotham’s proposal to dedicate $600 million to fix roads, intersections, sidewalks and bridges.

This comes after six years of heated debate on how to pay for the county’s transportation needs, including a failed penny sales tax for transportation in 2010 and this year’s failed attempt at a half-cent referendum, which didn’t even make it onto the ballot. Meanwhile, the area earned a bad reputation nationally for its congested roads in need of repair and lack of mass transit and safe pedestrian paths.

Higginbotham’s last-minute proposal required commissioners to devote $35 million to transportation next year and increase the allocation by $5 million every year for the next 10 years.

But local residents expressed their concern with the county’s budget while others said there isn’t enough funding dedicated to transportation.

“In fiscal year 2017, there’s $30 million of impact fee buybacks in the transportation funding. $30 million for 2017 is not going to transportation. That’s not for transportation projects,” tea party activist Sharon Calvert said.

Others urged the county commissioners to lobby the state to receive more money.

“The county needs a lot of money. We just don’t have it,” said George Niemann. “I implore you to lobby with the state. The city says they’re going to lobby.”

The plan approved Thursday does not include any significant investment in public transit as the sales tax money would have; it instead mostly focuses on safety projects and maintenance.

Commissioner Sandy Murman also proposed a plan to raise an estimated $820 million over the next 10 years and set aside one-third of growth from property tax revenue for road work and other transportation projects.

The county’s financial advisers criticized the plan because it could cause a downgrade in the county’s AAA bond rating due to its inability to deal with an economic dip, which could jeopardize debt payments, according to TBO.com

Amid these concerns, commissioners chose Higginbotham’s plan over Murman’s.

Murman expressed worry that Higginbotham’s plan would turn into a “shell game” since money isn’t being dedicated to transportation first and foremost.

“This is a short-term solution,” Murman said. “We all know where we’re heading when you get the premium transit plan back. We have to go to the voters at some point with this robust, multimodaltransit plant that’s going to come in front of us.”

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on transportation:

After six years, Hillsborough County actually does something about transportation

• Steve Contorno, Times Staff Writer

Thursday, September 8, 2016 8:35pm

TAMPA — After a failed referendum in 2010 and two failed attempts to hold another in 2016, the six-year debate about how to pay for Hillsborough County’s transportation needs reached a milestone achievement Thursday: Something actually passed.

County commissioners unanimously voted to dedicate $600 million over the next 10 years to fixing roads, bridges, sidewalks and intersections.

That won’t require a tax increase; instead, commissioners moved to put $35 million more of the county budget toward transportation next year and increase that amount by $5 million each year for a decade.

The agreed-upon solution was so remarkably simple, it was put together in a couple of weeks by Commissioner Al Higginbotham. It passed Thursday just a few days after commissioners first laid eyes on it. Past proposals took months to draw up, expensive consultants and lots of public hearings.

But the approved plan is also well short of the amount needed to pay for Hillsborough’s backlog of roadwork or to meet the demands of one of Florida’s fastest growing counties. And it doesn’t include additional commitments to transit.

The penny sales tax for transportation voters soundly rejected in 2010 and this year’s failed attempt at a half-cent referendum both would have pumped billions of dollars into county coffers, including millions for buses and other transit — albeit at a cost many residents said they didn’t want to pay.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner, speaking freely because he is set to leave at the end of the year due to term limits, told colleagues to not go out “beating its chest” after Thursday’s vote.

“The passage of this policy is not mission accomplished, board members,” Beckner said. “You’ve got a lot more work to do.”

The decision was far more contentious than the final 7-0 vote indicated. It was reached after 100 minutes of vigorous debate.

Commissioner’s chose Higginbotham’s proposal over another from Commissioner Sandy Murman, which was supported by Commissioners Stacy White and Victor Crist. Her plan would have dedicated one-third of the growth in property taxes collected to raise about $741 million over 10 years to pay for transportation needs.

But financial and bond advisers cautioned that Murman’s proposal could lead to a downgrade in the county’s AAA bond rating. Putting transportation projects first, they said, could jeopardize debt payments.

“How any commissioner could ignore that fact is mind-boggling,” Commissioner Ken Hagan said.

Higginbotham said his proposal — which he said he “didn’t just fall off a log” and write — eliminated that concern by drawing from more revenue streams. It would take a super majority vote of five commissioners to change course, but included contingencies in case of an economic downturn.

“Brothers and sisters,” he said, “we have been there.”

It also included provisions for new quarterly budget reviews and new requirements for how county departments and commissioners can introduce new spending into the annual budget.

They still have to decide how to spend the money, but Higginbotham’s plan required maintenance and safety improvements will be first in line.

Murman, though, worried Higginbotham’s plan would turn into a “shell game.” Without dedicating money first to transportation, she said, there was no guarantee future boards would oblige Thursday’s decree.

“The new plan has more flexibility but it has less certainty,” Murman said. “For me (transportation) is either a priority or it’s not, it’s a commitment or it’s not. The new plan does not have the commitment or the priority.”

Murman and Beckner successfully won a substantial change, however. Higginbotham’s proposal could have drawn from revenues generated by new mobility fees charged to developers for new construction.

Commissioners approved those fees earlier this year. They were meant to be collected in addition to a sales tax increase. But that failed, and Beckner insisted the mobility fees should remain supplemental. In the first 10 years, those fees are expected to bring in about $100 million for transportation improvements.

Commissioners voted 7-0 to keep mobility fees separate.

With mobility fees, if commissioners stay the course, there will be $700 million new dollars for transportation by 2026.

It’s not enough to end the transportation debate for long, Murman warned. She always envisioned her plan as a stopgap until the county completed a premium transit study that included a review of whether to buy CSX rail lines for a commuter rail system.

“This is a short-term solution,” Murman said. “We all know where we’re heading when you get the premium transit plan back. We have to go to the voters at some point with this robust, multimodul transit plant that’s going to come in front of us.”

“So get ready.”

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Bay Times article on transportation:

Another transportation funding proposal emerges in Hillsborough County just before key vote

• Steve Contorno, Times Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 7, 2016 6:05pm

TAMPA — A Hillsborough County commissioner whose vote has helped sway the fate of several major transportation proposals this year is now offering a last-minute alternative of his own to pay for much-needed road work.

Commissioner Al Higginbotham wants the board to commit $600 million of the county budget over the next 10 years to transportation, starting with $35 million in 2017 and increasing the amount by $5 million each year after. Safety projects and back maintenance would get top priority.

That’s about $220 million less than Commissioner Sandy Murman’s proposal to dedicate one-third of future growth in property and sales tax revenues to transportation. But Higginbotham said his plan is more stable and reliable because it won’t be subject to swings in property values.

It is Higginbotham’s intention for commissioners to weigh both proposals during today’s County Commission meeting. Higginbotham hopes this is the elusive compromise that can finally win over four votes. Commissioners have already twice rejected a proposal to raise the sales tax by a half-cent for 20 years and 30 years.

At least three other commissioners — Les Miller, Ken Hagan and Kevin Beckner — have expressed reservations about Murman’s proposal.

“This addresses the concerns of my colleagues, but I also think it addresses the transportation needs of the county,” Higginbotham said.

The board voted 6 to 1 on Aug. 10 to advance Murman’s proposal to a vote. Higginbotham’s plan was first sent to commissioners last week and was included on the agenda for the meeting that was released to the public Friday.

A decision is needed today because the budget is scheduled for adoption Sept. 15.

Higginbotham said he had “grave concerns” after bond advisers warned in August that Murman’s proposal could threaten the county’s AAA bond rating. Requiring 33 percent of sales and property tax revenue could put the county at risk of not paying debts already tied to those revenue streams.

County Administrator Mike Merrill also said it could lead to a cut in county services. Merrill said he plans to recommend Higginbotham’s proposal at today’s meeting.

“I feel like what he’s got is a good place to be,” Merrill said. “I can recommend that and feel comfortable that we’re not going to harm our credit ratings and we’re not going to hurt services for residents, and it’s a meaningful commitment to transportation rather than a projected growth in revenues.”

Murman could not be reached for comment.

While it would mean less money over the next decade if approved, Higginbotham’s proposal would put more toward transportation initially — $120 million during the first three years. Murman’s proposal would bring in about $820 million, but more than half would come in the final three years of the 10-year plan, according to county projections, and about $90 million in the first three years.

Under both scenarios, future boards could vote to override these transportation allocations. Higginbotham, though, requires a supermajority of commissioners, five of seven, to deviate from his plan.

Contact Steve Contorno at scontorno@tampabay.com. Follow @scontorno.