It’s been four years since a controversial Hillsborough transportation tax was deemed unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
Now, the revenue it generated between 2019 and 2021 is finally starting to be redistributed.
Almost exactly a year ago, state legislators decided that $256.4 million of the roughly $569 million collected by the All for Transportation 1% sales tax would be allocated to road resurfacing projects in Hillsborough County. The rest went to a refund program for residents, lawyers' costs and supplementing the cost of other tax holidays in the county.
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The Florida Department of Transportation will distribute that $256.4 million through agreements between FDOT, Hillsborough County and a variety of third recipients.
The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners approved the first set of those agreements during a March 5 meeting. They moved forward on returning just over $17 million to Plant City, ZooTampa and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The only contract without a third party is the one between FDOT and Hillsborough County, which is slated to receive $208 million to complete 77 predetermined projects. That agreement, along with the remaining two with Tampa and Temple Terrace, will be up for approval at the County Commissioners’ April 5 meeting.
Until they’re approved, county officials told the Board how they hope to make progress in the planning stages of the road projects.
“In the meantime, our team will continue to negotiate scope and fee with our design consultants for the major roads,” said assistant county administrator Kim Byer, who said that Hillsborough County will be responsible for giving FDOT monthly progress reports for each recipient.
Engineering and operations director Josh Belotti said that work on smaller neighborhood road projects can start before the agreements with the county and FDOT are approved. They’ll prioritize those projects when laying things out to meet FDOT’s deadline of June 30, 2030.
“Within the first year is when we really want to get moving on the local road projects, while we’re doing that engineering and design and procurement on the major roads,” Belotti said.
Commissioner Ken Hagan was enthusiastic about securing state funding for resurfacing roads and other projects.
“Anytime you get $208 million to help with our needs, that’s very much appreciated,” he said.
But Hagan also expressed concerns about the county’s existing stormwater projects getting pushed aside.
Ideally, he said, the county would wait to secure funding for both goals and do them at the same time, “so we’re not resurfacing a road and then tearing it up in a year or two to add in the stormwater projects.”
Hagan said he wants to be sure that the county’s priorities “aren’t delayed because (they) have to hit an artificial deadline (set) by the (legislature).”
Belotti confirmed that Hagan’s concerns aren’t misplaced, as he said the county has over 100 capital improvement projects, such as stormwater and sewer work, that overlap with roadwork outlined in the FDOT agreement.
To help coordinate these projects, Belotti said they’ll be bringing in dedicated design consultants to focus on the FDOT agreement’s projects.
