TAMPA: The business community has weighed in on Hillsborough County’s transportation funding debate — sort of.
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce board of directors on Thursday released a statement regarding transportation that is vague in its wording and somewhat cryptic. But chamber president Bob Rohrlack said Friday the board’s intent was to support putting a sales tax transportation referendum on the 2016 ballot.
The initiative has endured months of attacks, but was recently endorsed by political leaders — and now, possibly, the business community.
“We’re wanting (county commissioners) to know, as far as the business community goes, we want you to do it,” Rohrlack said. “We’re telling them to keep moving forward and keep talking.”
The language of the release is less emphatic. In the statement, the board said it would “support a referendum that includes measureable transportation outcomes, including mobility options and additional funding sources.” It also said that the board believes “transportation investment in the community requires additional funding sources to solve our transportation challenges.”
The statement made no mention of Go Hillsborough or a half-cent sales tax increase to fund transportation projects. That was the option recommended by Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill and endorsed Nov. 5 by the Policy Leadership Group, a body of Hillsborough commissioners and mayors from the three cities. The Hillsborough County Commission is expected to vote in the next couple months whether to put the sales tax hike on the 2016 ballot.
Rohrlack said the commission’s pending vote is what spurred the board to release a statement. Though the PLG supported the plan, commissioners are split in their support. Rohrlack said the chamber wanted commissioners to know the business community supported moving forward.
However, the chamber’s statement did not reference the sales tax at all. It was also not clear if the chamber believes the construction plan tied to the sales tax proposal has “measurable transportation outcomes.” The board did call for “mobility options,” meaning transportation alternatives.
“We don’t think that it’s just simply roads,” Rohrlack said. “It’s improving the other options that are out there now for people to not use their cars and looking for what options we can support in the future.”
Proponents of the sales tax option are banking on business groups and leaders to help bankroll the campaign to pass Go Hillsborough in 2016, and they hope the business community — which often maligns the region’s transportation woes as an impediment to Tampa’s growth and recruitment efforts — will publicly support the referendum.
