Writer: Joshua Andino
2 min read October 2022 — A Hillsborough County judge struck down the county’s proposed transportation surtax ballot initiative last week. The question is now, what’s next for the transportation tax referendum?
Last week Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe struck down Hillsborough County’s proposed ballot initiative to let voters decide on whether to levy a %1 surtax to fund transportation projects throughout the city. The court sided with Karen Jaroch in Karen Jaroch v. Hillsborough County, and found the ballot language to be misleading.
Jaroch is a conservative activist and organizer with Heritage Action for America, the organizing wing of the think-tank, The Heritage Foundation. This is the second time a judge has struck down a Hillsborough County ballot initiative to fund transportation projects, with a similar 2018 ballot referendum challenged by County Commissioner Stacy White and struck down on appeal last year leaving $570 million, collected throughout the process, in limbo.
In response, the Hillsborough County Commission voted on Thursday to appeal the ruling. Once filed, the appeal automatically stays the court order, according to Chief Assistant County Attorney Robert Brazel. The stay will provide voters the opportunity to make their choice known on election day in November. Jaroch, represented by lawyer Samuel Salario, could ask for the stay to be vacated, and prevent the vote.
The surtax would have gone to fund transportation projects across the county, the need for which has become increasingly dire as the city continues to grow. While new residents and business relocations have elevated Tampa’s profile on the national and global stage, the region has struggled to find ways to relieve traffic congestion and improve roadside safety, even as the number of deaths on local roads has continued to climb over the last year. Safe Roads USA notes that, “The roads throughout Hillsborough County have the highest traffic fatality rate per capita for large counties in the United States.”
The county has a $13 billion backlog of transportation projects. The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, which projections have going into the red by 2027, would’ve seen 45% of the surtax revenue allocated to HART, which would’ve gone to a number of different projects, including dozens of road safety, maintenance and improvement projects, a BRT connection to the University of South Florida, the TECO streetcar line expansion and more frequent bus service.
The decision is a setback for a region that has increasingly attempted to address the traffic and transportation challenges its growth has spurred, with a number of public and private stakeholders noting their disappointment in the ruling. Bemetra Simmons, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership, noted in an op-ed that, “Nationally, transportation is the second-highest household expense. Tampa Bay is no exception. On average, nearly half the residents across our 8-county region fall beneath the poverty line or are considered Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE),” and that an additional 700,000 new residents were expected to settle into the area over the next 30 years.
In her interview with Invest: earlier this year, Simmons noted that transit was a critical focus. “Transportation is a huge challenge. The Partnership does an annual report in collaboration with the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and United Way Suncoast to measure the Tampa Bay region against 19 other peer and aspirational markets. We’ve been doing this for the past five years, and we remain last every year in transit options,” Simmons said.
Other local organizations gave similar statements. Bob Rohrlack, CEO of the Tampa Bay Chamber, told Invest:, “The business community is going to need to raise its voice and be more pointed with our elected leaders. This is a long-term effort. Elected officials may term out before they see any impact, but they still need to focus heavily on all the aspects of fixing transportation.”
Jaroch, who filed the lawsuit and served as a member of the HART board of directors between 2011-2017, according to her Linkedin, said she wanted to see the agency succeed, “I think this tax in many ways was a bailout of the agency,” she said in an interview. “As a [former] HART board member, I want to see good transit for those who need the service. I want to preserve HART. This went above and beyond it.” It is unclear how denying the funds would do so, with Rohrlack telling the Tampa Bay Business Journal, “The community has been very clear: we want transportation improvements,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to get those who just aren’t happy they’re not getting their way from finding technical reasons to keep our community from moving forward.”
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