The 2023 Legislative Session came to an end on Friday, May 5th and our Chamber has closely monitored several areas of interest to our business community and the Tampa Bay region, at large. At the top of the list is the matter of what to do with $570 Million in revenue collected from Hillsborough County’s now defunct All for Transportation Sales Tax.
Dr. Bob Rohrlack, CCE, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Chamber: "For more than a year, our Chamber has worked arduously with members of the Hillsborough County delegation and our business community partners asking for the return of the $570 Million in revenue collected from Hillsborough’s Transportation Sales Tax. These funds have been escrowed since January 1, 2019, amid a legal battle going all the way up to the Florida Supreme Court. When others suggested alternate uses as the best use of those funds, including a tax holiday, we intensified our Chamber’s efforts advocating those funds be exclusively used for transportation-related matters. While we are disappointed the legislature postponed making any decision on the escrowed funds, we are pleased they did not vote for the proposed sales-tax-holiday. This week’s decision to table the matter until next year’s legislative session allows us to fight another day for those tax dollars to be used the way voters intended in 2018. We look forward to hearing from our Hillsborough County delegation as they lead the effort to invest the $570 Million to improve transportation conditions for voters in Hillsborough - where those funds originated."
Mickey Jacob, 2021 & 2022 Chair of Transportation Council and 2023 Co-Chair of Policy Council, Tampa Bay Chamber: "It is essential that the escrowed, non-recuring funds originally collected via the sales tax be returned to our community for use in three critical transportation needs: shovel-ready roadway resurfacing, congestion relief, and safety enhancements. These transportation challenges were the genesis for the referendum’s approval five years ago. Those are needs that have only increased with the explosive growth in the region. Investing these funds to address Hillsborough’s transportation needs is the responsible and right thing to do. This is a non-partisan and quality-of-life issue. 589-thousand workers are commuting in Hillsborough; we have an estimated 3 million people across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties; and the current backlog in Hillsborough’s transportation projects has reached $13 Billion. The need is clear by any metric."