Tampa mayor says state of the city not so good
TAMPA -- Like the rest of the state and nation, Tampa faces hard times, Mayor Pam Iorio said today in her annual State of the City address.
"We are facing a severe budget challenge," she said. "There have been recessions before, but this is different." Its scale, scope and global effect make it difficult to resolve, she said.
Iorio, who is in her final term as mayor and has indicated she may seek a U.S. Senate seat in 2010, told hundreds of city employees that President Barack Obama is doing what he can to turn the nation's economy around and that Florida lawmakers need to look at tax policy and over-reliance on development to feed the state coffers.
"Florida does not have a stable source of revenue," she said.
Locally, she said, the solution to economic woes is light rail because it will create jobs and promote smart growth. Iorio said she hoped by the end of the year Hillsborough County commissioners would approve putting a referendum on a sales tax to pay for a line from the University of South Florida to the airport on the 2010 ballot.
Still, Iorio said Tampa is a city that continues to thrive, with a dropping crime rate, new museums opening and installation of new water, wastewater and stormwater pipes.
"We continue to invest, even in a time of a severe economic downturn," she said.
Janet Zink, Times staff writer
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"Each year I've said the city is good," Iorio said. "I think good really sums it up. Good is good. People really want their lives to be good."
Well... I guess good is... good.
Posted by: RB | March 23, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Having light rail to the airport would be a wonderful thing. It’s not exactly public mass transit, in the broadest sense, but would be a good start towards developing some kind of intra-city rail system.
Posted by: Campaign Manager | March 23, 2009 at 12:40 PM
"Florida does not have a stable source of revenue," she said.
... nuff said
Posted by: -- | March 23, 2009 at 01:17 PM
She's a rock star.
Run Pam Run!
Posted by: flaguy | March 23, 2009 at 01:45 PM
Rail costs a ton of money just ask the floudering Tri-Rail people how that is going. Using it to promote smart growth sounds great but it once again means she is relying on the growth machine to be Florida's source of revenue! We need sources other than growth! Good try working the rail vision into it though!
Posted by: Oh Brother | March 23, 2009 at 02:58 PM
The Mayor is right on!
The addiction to sprawl parallels our addiction to oil.
The latest assault on good growth and moving away from mindless sprawl is SB 360 - GROWTH MANAGEMENT BILL.
Obviously, I support the concept of infill in the core of cities and/or towns and steering away from encouraging more greenfield sprawl with exemptions, but this bill will financially and physically harm Hillsborough County because it has too broad of an application. There is nothing in this bill that ties it to the core cities or towns!
Therefore, the entire Urban Service Boundaries in Hillsborough would be exempt from transportation concurrency, DRI reviews and an expedited plan amendment process less state oversight. Instead of creating infill, it would
promote sprawl. There is no money attached to this, so Hillsborough County would be responsible for the transportation infrastructure
instead of the development sharing its cost!
Posted by: GKR | March 23, 2009 at 04:05 PM
Rail - as an after thought - is nothing but a boondoggle guised as cognizant thought.
Posted by: --- | March 23, 2009 at 04:42 PM