Opinion
Different times
TBO.com
Published: June 16, 2012
The process of putting together a proposal on extending the Penny for Pasco for a second 10 years is moving ahead. The Pasco School Board wants the tax to stay and primarily would use its 45 percent share of Penny revenue to renovate existing schools, not build new ones. Pasco's cities would be happy to continue to divvy up the 10 percent left over after the county takes its 45 percent.Published: June 16, 2012
Meanwhile, the Pasco County Commission likely will put the question of extending the Penny for Pasco before the voters, but briefly was not of one voice on how to allocate its revenue share. The county has been considering spending the roughly $226 million in Penny revenue it would get over the next decade by the following formula: $45 million each in three areas (environmental land acquisition, public safety and economic development), and the remaining roughly $90 million on transportation.
Commissioners Jack Mariano and Henry Wilson, however, had suggested cutting the $45 million for land acquisition in half and reallocating the money to other categories. This week, however, neither objected to giving land acquisition the full $45 million.
Maybe they should have. The Penny for Pasco was approved in 2004, well before the county's construction industry tanked, so the likelihood of environmentally sensitive Pasco land being developed is greatly reduced for the foreseeable future. Perhaps, over the next decade, spending more Penny revenue on transportation would improve the county's ability to handle healthy development, if it ever returns.