Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 9-16-16 Online Edition

Local
Commissioners Unanimously Approve $600 Million For Transportation
COMMISSION CHAIR LES MILLER
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
County Commission Chair, and Metropolitan Planning Organization Board Chair, Les Miller, has been adamant about what he felt would be the best cure for the county’s transportation prob- lems.
Commissioner Miller
tried on more than one occa- sion to convince his colleagues to approve putting a half-cent sales tax referendum on the ballot, and let the voters de- cide if they want it or not. That plan would have generated more than $117 million annu- ally, with HART getting $30 million annually.
Comm. Miller was never
COMMISSIONER SANDY MURMAN
successful in convincing his colleagues to put the item on a ballot, and last Thursday when Commissioner Al Higgin- botham’s proposal was re- vealed, he, along with his colleagues, voted unanimously to approve it.
Commissioners approved a $600 million transportation package that will allocate $35 million the first year, and in- crease by $5 million over the following nine years.
“This plan is entirely dif- ferent from anything we’ve proposed in the past,” said Comm. Miller.
“With Comm. Higgin- botham’s plan, funds can come from other areas, includ- ing sales tax growth. The pro- posal by Commissioner Sandy Murman would have
hurt us and possibly hurt our bond rating. Her plan would have used our growth dollars and we would have had to cut some services down the line.”
Comm. Miller said as far as how the $35 million will be used, HART will do a study to see where the funds will be al- located.
“Comm. Higginbotham worked closely with staff on this, and now we can work closely with our other cities. The annual funds won’t be as high as what Comm. Mur- man proposed, but growth funds won’t be touched.”
Comm. Murman’s plan would have dedicated one- third of the growth in property taxes collected to raise about $741 million over 10 years.
COMMISSIONER AL HIGGINBOTHAM
HART Gets $4.3 Million Grant For New Buses
The Hillsborough Area Re- gional Transit Authority (HART) was awarded $4.3 mil- lion as part of a competitive U. S. Department of Transporta- tion’s Federal Transit Adminis- tration (FTA) Bus and Bus Facilities Grant Program. The award represents the first time in 15 years HART has won a competitive grant award from the U S. Department of Trans- portation. HART was the only agency in Florida to win a por- tion of the grant.
HART applied for the grant in May under the highly com- petitive Bus and Bus Facilities Grant Program with a total of $211 million available nation- ally and hundreds of competi- tion applications received nationwide. Sixty one projects
in 41 states, the Virgin Islands, and Indian Country, will re- ceive a share of the grand money to replace rehabilitate, and purchase transit buses and related equipment, and con- struct bus related facilities.
HART will use the funds to purchase more CNG buses as the agency transitions its fleet from diesel to compressed nat- ural gas in an effort to cut back on harmful emissions and im- prove air quality in the Tampa Bay region.
HART currently operates 22 CNG 40-foot buses, 28 smaller CNG vehicles are used for the agency’s HARTPlus and HARTFlex services, and six CNG MV-1 wheelchair ans. An additional 13 CNG buses are being prepared for service.
CNG BUS (Compressed Natural Gas)
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