Tampa Bay Area Light Rail Necessary With or Without Tampa-Orlando High-Speed Rail

''We must have a state-of-the-art light-rail system to be competitive in the 21st century,'' says Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, stressing the need again and again at town meetings and other events as she campaigns across Hillsborough County for voter approval of a penny sales tax increase this November. The increase, from 7 to 8 cents per dollar, reports the Florida Independent, would provide 75 percent of the new revenue for the proposed light rail and for expanded bus service, and the rest for road improvements.

Some anti-tax activists have doubts that light rail will succeed. ''I think there are a lot of sunny-day scenarios being put forward that people are going to pay to ride something like this, but I just don't see it happening,'' said Tampa Tea Party president and No Tax For Tracks campaign leader Sharon Calvert.

On the other side, a diversified Moving Hillsborough Forward group raised more than $975,000 in donations, mostly from business, to fight for light rail as economically and environmentally advantageous. Its downtown Tampa connection to the future $2.6-billion Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail line, for which President Obama allotted $1.25 billion in recovery stimulus funds, would also increased ridership for both systems, making them mutually beneficial. Nonetheless, ''this is still a very difficult economy, so we are working to make our case,'' said Moving Hillsborough Forward member and former Congressman Jim Davis. Confirming a strong federal interest in Tampa's light rail, he noted similar fiscal challenges related to the 84-mile high-speed line, for which the state needs some $1.3 billion to have trains running in 2015. ''When you look at the state budget, it's not going to be easy. But the bottom line is they will find a way, because with this (federal) funding coming in, it has to get done,'' he observed, equally confident of ultimate light rail success. ''The reality isn't if, but when, this is going to happen, he told the writer. ''First let me say I think the referendum will pass, but if it doesn't, we will try again until we find a way.''

Urging constituents to back light rail, Mayor Iorio points out that the system is a must for solving the area's enormous transportation problems regardless of the high-speed Tampa-Orlando connection. ''Even if there were no plans for high-speed rail,'' she asserts, ''we would still be doing the same thing.''  8/2/2010

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