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Once upon a time, local politicians and assorted muckety-mucks set about selling We the People on a tax for something big and pricey they said would make this a better place to live.
Sure, you're thinking. Rail, right? That controversial commuter rail people are just starting to buzz about, packaged up with some badly needed road and bus improvements?
Pah! We're talking football here! Priorities, people!
You remember it: Back in 1996, after a hard-fought campaign right down to the pro-tax bumper stickers, citizens gave a thumbs-up to a half-cent sales tax that would in part fund new digs for the Bucs amid rumblings about the team leaving town. The community investment tax also meant money for schools, police, roads and such.
Fast forward to last week, when after a spirited public hearing, Hillsborough commissioners voted 5-2 to let residents say yea or nay to a penny tax for rail, roads and buses in November, a decision being watched closely by neighboring counties considering their own futures, transportationwise.
Even some of rail's biggest cheerleaders worry this won't pass. Which would mean a majority of us were willing to pay for a nice place to watch football, but not for an all-out transformation of how we get around here. Or more accurately, how we don't.
Hey, don't get me wrong — I love local football, hockey and baseball. (Go Rays! Though we'll have to save that where's-the-best-place-for-them-to-play debate for another day.)
Yes, we have big differences between the tax for RayJay — highly controversial and a squeaker with only 53 percent of the vote — and the transit tax that hangs in the balance. Most obvious is the current dismal economy, which could make initial resident gut reaction to upping the sales tax from 7 to 8 percent something along the lines of: Are you kidding me?
Here is the heartening part, if, like me, you think Tampa Bay needs to push ahead as a thriving, competitive place to live. And if you like the jobs this will bring. And if you believe rail to connect our sprawling corners and ferry all-important tourists just makes sense.
At that hearing, supporters in green outnumbered those opposed and made for some weird bedfellows. Tree huggers linked arms with business interests. Unions, builders and antigrowth types hugged. (Okay, they were at least on the same side for a change.) "The lions and the lambs laying down with each other," Commissioner Mark Sharpe later said. He knows whereof he speaks, being both a Republican and rail booster, a man who has been cheered and heckled both.
At least two residents who looked like they would qualify for the senior discount at Denny's stood to say that even if they do not live long enough to see all the tax would bring, they will vote for it for their grandchildren, for the future.
And get this: A recent survey of Hillsborough AAA members showed half favored the penny tax and half opposed it. Even before what better be a media blitz, who'da thought? But before train lovers get giddy, note the poll also showed two-thirds were previously unaware of this whatsit transit plan thingie. Meaning rail believers best roll up their sleeves if they have a prayer of convincing taxpayers that greatly improving how we get around is at least as important as a fine place to watch football. No, really, it is. Seriously.
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