Hillsborough commissioners approve first set of projects using transportation tax funds
Money from transportation tax assigned to projects
FOX 13's Kellie Cowan has a look at the projects that will be funded with money raised through a controversial transportation tax that the Florida Supreme Court later deemed unconstitutional.
TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough County commissioners have approved the first set of projects using money raised through a controversial transportation tax.
All for Transportation tax
The backstory:
Voters in Hillsborough County approved the All for Transportation tax in November 2018. The penny sales tax was intended to raise nearly $16 billion over a 30-year period to finance transportation projects.
In 2021, however, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the tax unconstitutional. By then, the tax had raised $570 million.
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A Tampa judge later ruled that funds from that tax must be spent on transportation in Hillsborough County.
After all legal fees and refunds were paid, the fund had $256 million left – money that's been sitting in limbo since 2021.
Courtesy: Hillsborough County Commission.
What's next:
The first three sets of projects approved by the commission are for Plant City, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and ZooTampa, with a total cost of $17 million.
The bigger bulk of the funding – including larger projects in Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa, and Temple Terrace – will need to be given the green light next month.
The Florida Legislature has already laid out which road projects will receive funding, giving commissioners a deadline of 2030 to get the work done.
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What they're saying:
"I just want to make sure our priorities are not delayed because of an artificial deadline set by the legislature and I don’t want our funding taken away from one of our projects in order to make the deadline for one of the projects the state prioritized that may not be one of ours," Commissioner Ken Hagan said.
The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kellie Cowan, along with previous FOX 13 News reports.
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