Pinellas County - It's Time to VOTE!

If you requested a mail-in Ballot it should have arrived by now. The Pinellas County Supervisor of elections has mailed just about 150,000 ballots so far and that is almost twice the number from last year.

All of the candidates and ballot initiatives are important this election, but the one on the back page entitled "COUNTY REFERENDUM QUESTION" is the one most likely to have the longest and most dramatic affect on Pinellas County.  This is the Sales Tax Referendum.

Captured in this one item is the commitment to tax Pinellas County residents and tourists 1% on almost everything you will buy for the next 90 years. Revenues begin at about $148 million per year and just keep increasing.

If the real objective of GreenLight was public transportation it might be worth considering, but the stated goal is transit oriented redevelopment. About 30 organizations and individuals have donated about $800,000 to support the GreenLight Sales Tax campaign. They have raised about $900,000 so you can easily judge the special interest desire to get this tax passed.

There is no logical reason for you to donate 1% of your spending to build a train from downtown St. Pete to downtown Clearwater just so a bunch of developers, finance houses, banks, real estate people, lawyers, consultants and contractors can have guaranteed source of public income for the next 90 years.

You will hear a lot of talk about buses and expanded bus service, but they do not need $2.2 Billion dollars in bond financing to expand the bus service.

 The people who really use public transportation in Pinellas County will have ride at least one and possibly two buses to use the train to get to work, assuming they work somewhere between downtown St. Pete and downtown Clearwater.

Why not get them on an express bus and save a lot of time, money and disruption along with added congestion from the train blocking intersections.

GreenLight or the "County Referendum Question" is the biggest Boondoggle I have seen in my 45 plus years in Pinellas County. 

Why don't you just vote NO and give that 1% to your church or favorite charity where it will do some good.

Watch My Video Green Light - It's a Bad Law before you vote.

E-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.