TAMPA, Fla. — After years of waiting, there's now more guidance surrounding the money collected briefly in 2019 from the All for Transportation tax.
In Governor Ron Desantis' 2023-2024 budget proposal, he states, "a list of transportation infrastructure projects may only include the construction of roads, bridges, road resurfacing, and associated infrastructure development and related planning and development costs.
It prohibits spending money on public transit. That goes against plans local governments had, like the City of Tampa's desire to spend the money on expanding the TECO Streetcar.
Mayor Jane Castor mentioned where that money could go during the Streetcar's 20th-anniversary celebration last October. She said the city could get more federal grants if they had the money to match the grants. That money was ideally supposed to come from the tax.
"We were counting on the transportation referendum to be able to provide that funding. And it's one of the areas that the community, I think, is woefully under-informed on," she said at the celebration.
The governor is also proposing a new use for the money; refunds to anyone who paid that penny tax back in 2019. Sharon Calvert applauds that move.
"It's actually a win-win for the taxpayers and the residents of Hillsborough County," she said.
Calvert served as chairperson for No Tax for Tracks. The PAC was in direct opposition to both versions of the All for Transportation Tax.
"The reason we're at this point four and a half years later is because it was an illegal tax. And those funds were illegally collected from the taxpayers in Hillsborough County," she said.
Most recently, county commissioners put a second version of the All for Transportation tax on the 2022 ballot. It failed, unlike in 2018. Nearly $570 million was collected from that version before a court ruled it unconstitutional, deeming the Florida Legislature would distribute the money collected.
Representatives from All for Transportation declined to comment on the budget proposal.
Last summer, we spoke to Co-Founder Tyler Hudson about what he wanted to see that money go towards once put back into the hands of local governments in Hillsborough County.
"Every single person that lives in Hillsborough County or drives through it or visits and gets off an airplane becomes the transportation expert really quickly because they see really specifically what the problems are. It's roads that are in terrible condition. It's sidewalks that just mysteriously end. Potholes. It's a lack of public transit options, so everyone's forced to have a car," he said.
But the waiting game continues. The money is held up until the legislature approves a budget.
