Spending plan in question

But Demings says sales tax increase has broad support

Pushing for a penny-per-dollar sales tax increase for transportation, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said his proposal has won broad-based support from business groups and labor, though some voters say they still doubt the county will keep its spending promises.

“I do hear a lot of questions swirling around accountability — ‘What’s gonna keep you from doing something else with these dollars?’ ” Demings said this week of queries from voters weighing the question of raising their own taxes as housing and other costs spike.

The day after residents began casting ballots on a measure that could shape his legacy as mayor, Demings in a 45-minute interview Tuesday sought to address lingering concerns for any voters still deciding whether to support the tax increase.

He noted that a citizens oversight committee will watch expenditures, as will comptroller Phil Diamond, who has audit power.

By ordinance, the oversight panel must include an appointee who regularly rides

SunRail or Lynx, the region’s two public transportation options, to ensure those alternative modes of transportation are improved and expanded as promised by county leaders.

County commissioners will have the final say on spending, “but there’s checks and balances in the process,” Demings said.

Despite doubters, Demings said he feels “really good” about the prospect of winning voters’ approval Nov. 8.

“We have built support from various economic and socioeconomic classes within our community,” he said, listing an array of business interests, chambers of commerce,

labor groups and the nonpartisan League of Women Voters.

“Just a whole cadre of people who have endorsed the initiative...”

If passed by voters, the proposed penny-per-dollar increase would boost the county sales tax from 6.5% to 7.5% on Jan. 1. County leaders estimated in April when county commissioners put it on the ballot that it would raise about $600 million a year, but there are plenty of naysayers.

“We’ve got a diverse group, from Tea Party types to some Democrats,” said Brian Henley, who leads “Ax the Tax.”

All three of Demings’ mayoral opponents in the August primary spoke out against the tax, saying it was unnecessary or ill-timed. He defeated the trio, tech entrepreneur Chris Messina; retired Army Col. Anthony Sabb; and University of Central Florida professor Kelly Semrad.

Henley said he agrees the region’s transportation network needs improvement, but he advocates for using tourist development taxes, an option Demings has rejected partly because the revenues, which have topped $300 million over the last 12 months, are committed.

Ax the Tax also has criticized the proposed spending plan for the surcharge revenues if the measure passes.

“The problem is they have this pipe dream about SunRail,” Henley said of local leadership’s advocacy for the commuter rail line, which runs 61 miles from Poinciana in Osceola north to Debary in Volusia.

“It’s a big waste of money, and that boondoggle sinks a tax for a lot of people. I don’t want us to raise anybody’s taxes.”

The 1% surcharge is estimated to generate $12 billion over the next 20 years.

According to the spending plan drafted by county leaders, anticipated tax proceeds would be divvied up three ways — 45% for bus and rail options; 45% for county road projects, including bicycle and pedestrian safety measures; and 10% for municipal transportation projects.

Moving Orange County Forward, a political action committee formed to promote the tax increase, has raised $762,000 through Oct. 21, according to the Orange County supervisor of elections.

Many donors are infrastructure consultants, engineering and design firms and others who potentially could win jobs if voters pass the surcharge and proposed projects go forward.

NBCUniversal, whose holdings include Universal Orlando Studios Florida, threw in $100,000, the largest single donation.

In May Universal was part of an announcement with SunRail touting the “Sunshine Corridor” that could link Orlando International Airport to I-Drive by rail. The company had opposed an earlier, less-expensive route that would have bypassed the tourist strip on its way to Disney.

County staff also drafted a nearly 1,200-page document listing projects on a priority list and an online, interactive map for voters to explore the types of projects in the planning pipeline. The map allows visitors to the site to see projects around any location they choose.

The webpage is available in English, Spanish and Creole.

Demings said local revenue will improve the county’s ability to compete for federal transportation funds.

“We want to get our fair share,” he said.

While some Central Florida taxpayers gripe about publicly funded bus and rail lines that run with mostly empty seats, ridership won’t improve without more frequent, punctual and reliable systems, which can only be achieved with government support, the mayor said.

Demings said metropolitan communities with successful multi-modal transportation systems have one thing in common.

“None of them survive solely on the fare box,” he said. “They all have some governmental support to make the systems work.”