TAMPA, Fla. — The penny sales tax aimed at funding road projects in Hillsborough County is facing yet another setback.
The ballot initiative would have given voters the option to choose whether or not they wanted to add a 1% sales tax.
They said that money would’ve gone toward fixing roads and bridges and improving public transportation.
But Monday, a judge sided with a lawsuit against the tax, saying that what was on the ballot was written in a vague and misleading way.
County Commissioner Harry Cohen said that the referendum could have brought tens of billions of dollars into the county for road-related projects. He defended the wording of the ballot initiative.
“I don’t think that the language in the referendum is vague and confusing at all," Cohen said. "It proposed a very straightforward question to the voters of Hillsborough County: Do you want to tax yourself in order to remedy these transportation problems? That’s the question, and people are able to vote for however they please. Yes or no."
Sharon Calvert, the chair of No Tax for Tracks, is celebrating the judge's ruling.
"It didn't tell the voter that all that can be asked for on a referendum, according to Florida statute 212.055, is the ask for a 1% sales tax for 30 years for transportation, for those projects that that statute allows it to be spent on and those funds deposited in a trust fund," she said.
She said the misleading part of the ballot named some communities within the county but not others.
"I think the judge yesterday used a very good analogy about the ballot language that it looked like it invited certain parts of the county to the party, and other parts of the county weren't invited," she added.
Calvert said she agrees that more needs to be done to better infrastructure in the county, but she disagrees on where the funding should come from.
"Transit has funding sources, and roads have a funding source by your property taxes, your gas taxes, your mobility fees," Calvert said.
Now you have the chance to weigh in. The county is holding an emergency meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday to figure out where they go from here.
