It would be cheaper for Hillsborough County to buy each daily rail rider 2 Ferraris than it would to build light rail.

Hillsborough County Commissioners plan to vote in March 2010 to approve a referendum calling for a sales tax increase from 7% to 8%.

This will be the largest sales tax increase in county history.

This tax increase will have harmful economic consequences which include:

• Taking more money away from struggling families especially the county's 151,000 citizens who live at or below the poverty level.
• Removing another One Percent in consumer spending from local businesses thereby exacerbating Hillsborough County's already high 12.1 percent unemployment rate.
• Giving Hillsborough County the highest sales tax of all Florida counties. Our rate will be 8% compared to the 6.83% average of all other Florida counties.

Hillsborough County forecasts that their light rail proposal will have 24,000 daily riders by 2,035 at a cost of $6.25 Billion. Click here to read email from Beth Alden, Hillsborough County Metropolitan Organization, which provides this forecast.

The county could buy 31,500 Ferraris ($200,000/car) and still have 7,500 Ferraris to spare over the 24,000 daily riders.

Actually, 24,000 daily riders = 12,000 people since most riders return to their point of origin and are counted twice as a daily rider. Therefore, it would be cheaper for the county to buy each of these 12,000 people 2 Ferraris than it would to build light rail.

Tri-Rail, which serves Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, reports ridership of 15,822 per day in their latest report. The population of these three counties is 5,414,772. This means that .002922 of the population served by Tri-Rail use this system. After 20 years of operation Tri-Rail has failed to achieve even a 1% daily ridership.

IF and that is a BIG IF, rail in Hillsborough County could match what it took 20 years for Tri-Rail to accomplish then officials should realistically only expect 3,498 riders per day (Hillsborough County’s population of 1,197,000 X .002922.)

COST PER 12,000 RIDERS = $ 520,833

COST PER 3.500 RIDERS =  $ 1,785,714

Do you want to be taxed more to pay for such an extravagant expense?

Please consider sending the email that has been prepared for you to go to ALL SEVEN Hillsborough County Commissioners to oppose the transit tax referendum.

To send your email, please click the following link, enter your name and email address then click the "Submit Email(s)" button. It is fast and simple and no registration is required.

Please click here to send your email to all 7 Hillsborough County Commissioners to oppose the sales tax proposal.

The following 5 commissioners support the tax:

Kevin Beckner becknerk@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: 272-5730 Fax 272-7053

Mark Sharpe sharpem@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: 272-5735 Fax 272-7054

Rose Ferlita ferlitar@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: ( 813 ) 272-5470 Fax: ( 813 ) 272-7046

Kevin White whitek@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: ( 813 ) 272-5720 Fax: ( 813 ) 272-7048

Ken Hagan hagank@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: 272-5452 Fax 272-7047

The following 2 commissioners do NOT support the tax:

Al Higginbotham Higginbothama@hillsborough.org
Phone: 272-5740 Fax: 272-7049

Jim Norman normanj@hillsboroughcounty.org
Phone: 272-5725 Fax 272-7052