Mayor Demings predicts sales-tax hike will ‘likely’ make Nov. ballot
After headlining an economic summit on mobility options, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings predicted a divided county commission will put his proposed sales-tax increase for transportation on the November ballot when the board faces the issue Tuesday.
“I believe most have warmed up to the idea of allowing the citizens to make the decision for themselves and not have us make the decision on their behalf,” the mayor told a group of reporters. “I believe that it is likely going to pass at the board of county commission.”
A simple majority — four of seven — is needed to put the measure on the ballot.
An Orlando Sentinel query of commissioners suggests Tuesday’s vote will be close with trust a factor.
Two commissioners are opposed, one “strongly,” a third commissioner is leaning that way, and three others are maybes.
“The time has come for Orange County to be visionary,” Demings
said at the “Transporting to the Future” economic summit staged Thursday at Full Sail University in Winter Park. “Our current transportation system is overburdened and, you might agree, underfunded, and it is time we address the issues. We should not continue to rely solely on widening and expanding roadways.”
Only one commissioner, Christine Moore, attended the event, co-hosted by the Orlando Economic Partnership.
What she heard swayed her. She said she went from no to maybe, but noted the region’s 8.5% inflation rate worries her.
“This transportation tax, which will cost you about $35 a month, could widen our roads, add signals, add bus routes, add a SunRail route through our district,” she wrote in a Facebook post Friday. “My vote is about whether you all should get to vote on it.”
Moore posted surtax documents for followers to read and called the vote “incredibly stressful for me.”
According to county figures, the proposed salestax increase — which works out to a penny-per-dollar increase on taxable goods — would bring in about $600 million a year for 20 years, about $12 billion, to build, improve and expand transportation options.
The tax proceeds would be spent on a myriad of multi-module projects such as improving the punctuality of the Lynx bus service; converting the gas-powered bus fleet to electric; expanding SunRail service to Apopka and Orlando International Airport; and upgrading roads and traffic technology to untangle congestion, shorten commutes and make roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Municipalities also would get a cut of the revenue for transportation projects.
If pushed forward, voters would get their say Nov. 8.
Demings said a dedicated source of funding for transportation is key to relieving traffic woes and helping Orlando keep pace with cities like Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Diego in competition for federal infrastructure funds and new businesses.
“If we don’t have better transportation options, we will fall further behind,” he said.
No votes
Commissioner Emily Bonilla, whose east Orange district includes Bithlo, the University of Central Florida’s main campus and Winter Park, described herself as “strongly” against putting the measure on the ballot, citing a number of reasons for her opposition.
“I feel the mayor isn’t listening to the commissioners and it’s a shame,” said Bonilla, in her second term as District 5 commissioner. “We’ve definitely tried to offer input. But every time we try to say something, you know, it’s like we’re ‘mansplained’ to.”
She said she doesn’t believe in the mayor’s plan or his promise to create a citizens committee to oversee spending.
Bonilla said the chairperson of the citizens panel should be chosen by its members not the mayor.
Commissioner Victoria Siplin, whose district includes International Drive and most of Pine Hills, was traveling Friday and was not available for an interview, according to her aide.
But after a staff presentation about the tax April 5, Siplin described herself as “not on board . ... ”
She said she respected Demings and his staff but was skeptical future commissions would honor their spending plan.
“We’re selling the community something that I don’t think is going to become a reality... I just know how it works,” said Siplin, whose term ends this year. “When you get a new board, you get a new set of fresh minds, people with different visions and different objectives.”
Other maybes
Commissioner Nicole Wilson, whose west Orange district includes Horizon West, Winter Garden and Disney properties, was on the fence about the sales-tax proposal, citing a county decision to renege on a decades-old promise to protect Split Oak Forest among her reasons.
“I don’t have any confidence we will stand behind anything we tell voters,” she said. “While I really fundamentally and philosophically like the idea of well-funded infrastructure, I feel like every time we’ve asked voters to go to the polls for something, we’ve betrayed them.”
Commissioner Mayra Uribe, whose district includes southeast Orlando, Belle Isle, Edgewood and neighborhoods such as Conway and Pine Castle, has questioned the plan for spending the tax proceeds since the county produced an 1,153-page spending outline.
“My concerns from the start have been accountability, efficiency, thriftiness and transparency,” she said. “I’ve never said we don’t need this. I have said let’s do this the right way. Let’s be responsible with these dollars. We need to prove to the public we are worthy of doing this.”
Uribe said she has doubts about giving large sums of public money to Lynx, the region’s bus system, and SunRail commuter line.
“When we talk about infusing all that money into public transit, we’re doing it because we want to get cars off the road,” she said. “But just because you dump money into it doesn’t mean it’s going to be useful or that it’s suddenly going to be ridden more.”
In a text message, Commissioner Maribel Gómez Cordero, whose south Orange district includes the fast-growing Lake Nona area, said she was still discussing her concerns with county staff and listening to the “opinions and desires” of her district constituents.
“I am not sure yet,” she wrote. “Maybe I will let the community decide in November.”
Demings reminded attendees of the summit that county voters rejected a smaller sales-tax hike for transportation in 2003.
“Imagine what our transportation system would look like today if the tax had passed two decades ago,” he said.
Since then, traffic has worsened, he said.
Commuters here spend an average of 61 hours a year driving from home to work and back, he said citing a consultant’s study.
“Our residents deserve a convenient, affordable and reliable means of commuting. … But there are some who think it is the wrong time to pursue investing in our future, concerned about our current rate of inflation,” Demings said. “To them, I ask, ‘If not now, when?’ ”