Sunday October 12, 2014 GreenLight, the Tea Party and Desperate Politics

What do The Tea Party, GreenLight and you have in common?

Well, if you are opposed to a 1% increase in the sales tax, a $2.2 Billion train from downtown St. Pete to downtown Clearwater and a 90 year mortgage on Pinellas County you will pay for; by definition of the high rollers that want to see this tax passed, you are a right wing, wacky extremist, Tea Party activist.

It is interesting how the GreenLight -Yes people are trying desperately trying to tie opposition of this sales tax boondoggle to extremists. One of the major tenants of politics is if your cause or issue has no merit then try to deflect attention to something that scares people.

If you have been following No Tax for Tracks for the last few months, you will notice the message has not changed. The Sales Tax is bad idea, the train is a worse idea and the expansion of bus service is not a promise it is a ploy. The message continues: PSTA is poorly run, easily violates the law, is not efficient and is more self serving than public serving.

GreenLight Pinellas has whipsawed on their message. Originally they included" transportation oriented development" in their goals, but let that one quietly slip away when it became clear that 30 or so high rollers from real estate, finance, consulting, Duke Energy and the sports teams   were really funding this effort redevelop South Pinellas County to the tune of over $800,000.

Transportation redevelopment is all about carving up Pinellas County so a bunch of special interests can make ton of money most of it from your tax dollars.

If you live in North Pinellas County you will get a couple of buses, maybe, from GreenLight.

If you live on the Beaches you basically get very little more from GreenLight Pinellas.

If you live in South Pinellas County you get to see the high rollers carve a snaking path through our streets and neighborhoods that basically avoids the areas where public transportation users live, buying and selling property, taking property, building multimillion dollar train stops, laying tracks that will snarl traffic increasing congestion and doing it with your tax dollars.

 All for a train that will be obsolete before it is finished and few will ever ride.

One thing we all do have in common we will get to pay and pay and pay for up to 90 years according to the PSTA/Pinellas County Interlocal Agreement.

If all of this sounds a little silly, if not stupid, then you are not an extremist you are a realist.

Right now, when it comes to public transportation in Pinellas County, you are in the driver's seat. You can put a stop to GreenLight just like they did in Hillsborough County and send the planners back to the drawing board.

Simply grab your ballot go to the County Referendum Question and vote NO

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.