Deja Vu! Same
people, same rail tax, same dishonesty, same deception and potentially
another unlawful tax hike referendum in
Hillsborough County.
The exclusive members
of the rail cartel have officially pivoted the other way in their hamster
wheel. They have poll tested messaging that appeals to voters.
The rail cartel
will use their poll tested messaging to lie to voters again. The privileged rail
cartel members have begun their campaign to dupe voters about AFT's
do-over 30 year ONE PERCENT (NOT ONE CENT) $18 BILLION rail tax - just
as they did in 2018.
With poll tested
messaging in hand, now the privileged wealthy special
interests money is flooding in again. The same special
interests cronies who funded AFT's UNLAWFUL and ILLEGAL 2018
rail tax are opening their wallets for another potentially UNLAWFUL rail
tax for Round 2.
 | AFT's Wealthy Special Interests Donors
(Source: Hillsborough County SOE website) |
|
The Tampa Bay
Partnership (TBP), the structural head of the
rail cartel, is an exclusionary organization:
"Membership is by invitation only." TBP's privileged members,
who reside in their exclusive groupthink bubble,
have been unsuccessfully pushing massive rail tax
boondoggles for decades.
It appears TBP has scrubbed
their website of how much it costs to be one of their exclusive members.
In 2018, it costs $50K to be a member of their "Council of
Governor's" governing body and $25K to be a member of their
"Leadership" team. We can reasonably assume the cost of being a
TBP exclusive member today costs much more.
In 2018 when
the illegal rail tax was rammed onto the ballot, TBP's
Council of Governors members included
Jeff Vinik and Chuck Sykes. Vinik was AFT's largest donor and [new baseball
stadium] Sykes helped fund and lead the 2010 rail tax boondoggle that was
overwhelmingly defeated.
In 2018
the members of the TBP Leadership team included
WSP (formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff of the infamous 2016 Go Hillsborough rail
tax scandal so beware of the $700K taxpayer funded HNTB campaign for the AFT do-over rail
tax), the Bucs, the Lightning (Vinik) and Ybor land developer Darryl
Shaw. Vinik, Shaw and AFT donor Frank Morsani helped financially bail out
the Tampa Bay Times in 2017 when the Times was going bankrupt.
Thus in 2018, the
Times protected their privileged financial benefactors. The
Times refused to report and inform the voting public about the potential legal
issues with the 2018 AFT rail tax referendum. That information was provided by
both County Commissioner Stacy White and provided in writing by rail tax opposition PAC
NoTaxForTracks to Times reporter Chris O'Donnell. That censorship was a
total disservice to the voting public who may have rejected the rail tax in
2018 if they had known the tax may be thrown out as unlawful.
Instead of
reporting about the potential legal issues, the Times published
puff pieces for the rail tax while ignoring those who opposed the egregious
tax.
Today's TBP Council
of Governors includes Brian Butler, the CEO of Vistra
Communications. Vistra, a PR and marketing firm, is being sued regarding the $2.6 MILLION of
ZuckBucks funneled to Vistra in 2020 through a no-bid single sourced contract
by Hillsborough County SOE Craig Latimer. Vistra used the ZuckBucks to launch a
PR GOTV campaign, directed by the SOE, a government, taxpayer funded
agency, to target exclusionary voter demographics.
The TBP's current
Council of Governors also includes the Rays, TECO and Duke Energy (remember
that when your energy costs are skyrocketing) and USF President Rhea Law.
The TBP's current
Leadership team includes WSP (formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff of the infamous
2016 Go Hillsborough rail tax scandal), the Bucs, the Lightning (Vinik),
Ybor land developer Darryl Shaw and Florida's "death train" Brightline. Same
tune, new rail tax.
While the exclusive Tampa
Bay Partnership may structurally lead the Tampa Bay rail cartel, the leader is
obviously Jeff Vinik. We can reasonably assume that TBP got the message
from AFT's largest donor Vinik that it was time for them and their privileged members
and allies to start doling out the dollars for AFT's do-over rail tax campaign.
In 2019, we reached
out to then TBP CEO Rick Homans. We asked him why TBP and their members
contributed millions to the unlawful 2018 rail tax charter amendment without
ensuring it was legal.
 | | 2018 TBP Leadership |
|
Homans responded to my question with "the Partnership
analyzed the amendment through its own process and, ultimately, relied on the
expertise of the professionals who drafted the
language."
I followed up by
asking Homans who were the persons he referred to as the professionals who
drafted the ballot language. Homans punted by responding that any specifics about
who actually drafted the language would have to come from AFT
but that they felt confident the language of AFT's charter amendment was A-OK.
In 2018, AFT told
the public they were just a "grassroots" group who drafted
their rail tax language. They lied because AFT was astroturf funded by wealthy
cronies who would greatly benefit from the rail tax. TBP's Homans
admitted professionals (whoever they were) drafted AFT's rail
tax language not "grassroots" citizens. Everything about AFT's rail
tax in 2018 was built on lies.
The TBP and rail
cartel elitists are surrounded by lawyers. Yet they donated MILLIONS in
2018 to an illegal rail tax. There is no excuse for what
they did to the voters and taxpayers in Hillsborough County.
These exclusive rail
cartel elites are largely to blame for why Hillsborough County still owes
taxpayers a refund of over $560 MILLION. Apparently they do not care
and/or the end justifies the means as they pursue another potential legally
flawed rail tax referendum.
The rail
cartel privileged members have direct access to power brokers, decision makers, like minded inside bureaucrats, "friendly elected officials (Tampa
Centric 5 Democrat county commissioners who put the do-over rail tax on the
November ballot - Vinik donated to the 4 running for
re-election) and "friendly" local media allies who support the rail
tax. These rail cartel allies will cover for their deception and
dishonesty.
In April 2018, Dr.
Jim Davison presented his alternative transportation funding plan that requires
no new tax hike to the BOCC. He sent the plan to the Tampa Bay Times and other
local media in July 2018. The Times told Davison his alternative funding
plan was not "newsworthy" and they refused to publish his
Op-Ed.
The AFT citizen
petition rail tax initiative began in June 2018 falsely claiming their massive
tax hike was the only solution for funding transportation. Censoring Davison's
information in 2018 enabled the Vinik funded AFT to continue making their false
claims. Such censorship again was a disservice to the voting public.
Below are the privileged rail
cartel members who funded the 2018 ILLEGAL rail tax and how
the rail cartel exclusionary elitists are connected. We have
highlighted who has already doled out dollars to the POTENTIALLY UNLAWFUL AFT rail tax do-over
on the November ballot. Deja Vu! This is the cartel those opposed to the rail
tax boondoggle will be fighting again.
The privileged rail
cartel elitists will spend millions between now and November 8th lying to
voters about their $18 BILLION inflationary rail tax - that benefits
them.
The exclusionary rail
cartel members want taxpayers in unincorporated Hillsborough to pay for costly
rail in Tampa where over half of the $18B tax hike will be spent but where only
a third of the population resides. Vinik's WaterStreet District revenue raising
powers and city of Tampa revenue sources can pay for their own Tampa trains.
Hillsborough County
can fund its transportation NEEDS with existing revenues and WITHOUT a
massive new tax hike. But that requires fiscal responsibility and proper
prioritization of the County's budget - something the rail cartel elites have
never demanded be done.
Voters must not be
DUPED again by AFT's deception and dishonesty.
With a legal challenge already filed, taxpayers
must never endure another legal mess or $560 MILLION refund debacle caused by
an unlawful and unnecessary tax hike referendum.
Vote NO in
November!
----------------------------------------------------------
Anyone who would
like to help in the fight against the rail cartel and their rail tax do-over
can donate to the formal opposition PAC NOTAXFORTRACKS (NTFT) here.
For Transparency -
please note that I am Chair of the NTFT PAC.
Posted by Sharon Calvert at 2:29 PM
READ POST AT: EYE ON TAMPA BAY
This post is contributed by EYE ON
TAMPA BAY. The views expressed in this post are the blog publisher's and do not
necessarily reflect those of the publisher of BayPost Internet.
Cross Posted with permission from: Eye On Tampa Bay
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