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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The 12 Days of NIMBY Christmas: Wishes for Hillsborough County
Posted by Kelly Cornelius on Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Daily Loaf contributor Kelly Cornelius is a founder of R-LAND (Rural Lithia Area Neighborhood Defense) and a proudly self-declared NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).
It has been a tough year for NIMBYs in Hillsborough County. The majority of the County Commission is still made up of and controlled by the Gang of Four, developer welfare has survived even in the wake of revelations that uncontrolled growth has put us billions behind in roads alone, and Commissioner Kevin Pimp Daddy White is costing the county $500,000 in a sexual harassment suit. That's 9.1 hookers!
It was revealed that County Administrator Pat Bean handed out raises to her top ten faves during one of the worst budget years and later rescinded them after they were exposed, but it didn't sit well with citizens or some commissioners (they didn't fire her, though). Our county administrator, county attorney and a county commissioner all have ethical violations pending against them (thanks to CL contributor George Niemann). The county voted to spend a quarter of a million dollars to appraise already preserved Cone Ranch [12,800 acres of land already owned by the county] in order to sell it to ......ourselves. Eight million dollars was spent on consultants to tell us how to spend millions on roads on a task force led by Commissioner Ken Half Truth Hagan.
$2.5 million was spent on consultants to study widening a two-lane road to six lanes, but residents complained and now most of the road will remain two lanes after all. (Maybe they should have asked first?) Officials are now tossing the idea around of taking Bruce Rooney's land (a war hero) via eminent domain for the proposed widening because their friends at the Brandon Chamber are asking. To top it all off, officials think you might want to pay for their past developer welfare sins by increasing your sales tax from 7% to 8% from now until forever to help fund a train and to fund some very expensive road projects that developers were already supposed to pay for. Recall every new rooftop they approve puts the county $11,000 in the hole, which they have refused to even discuss.
It wasn't all bad. There were some highlights, and I will list those for you in another post. But in light of the sex trials, the government waste and the developer welfare I decided to make a list of my 12 NIMBY Christmas wishes (to the tune of "The 12 Days of Christmas").
On the first day of Christmas I hope Santa brings to me No Wid-en-ing for Mr. Rooney
On the second day of Christmas I hope Santa brings to me Two More Good Commissioners and No Widening for Mr. Rooney
On the third day of Christmas Santa (okay George) brought to me Three Ethics Complaints Investigated, two more good Commissioners and no widening for Mr. Rooney.
Okay skip to 12 and work your way down to make this faster
12,800 acres of Cone Ranch (given to ELAPP)
$11,000 increase in impact fees
10 big raises rescinded
9.1 Hookers (for the Pimpin Commish)
$8 million back (from consultants)
7% sales tax (kept not raised) (Sorry Commissioner Sharpe)
FIVE hundred thousand dollars back (from Commissioner White to taxpayers)
3 ethics complaints investigated
2 more Good Commissioners
and
NO widening for Mr. Rooney
Photo credit: HowardLake @Flickr.com
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