Hillsborough Economic Development Administration Under Construction
From 83 Degrees Magazine the new media of Tampa Bay.

The goal of “super charging” economic development is behind the Hillsborough County Commissioners look into restructuring the Industrial Development Authority creating a new Economic Development Authority.

The commissioners emphasized Tuesday they were not gutting the known ineffectual bloated bureaucracy that is the Economic Development Council, repeating that they were dedicated to the status quo.

At the meeting James Surian, CEO of the stuffy Credit Card Processor Services firm known for sexually harassing female employees, Fubar-White Guy and Smog, and chair of the Economic Development Council said he wants to hear more.

“To the extent that this puts more tools in our belt this has promise” he asid “without diminishing our authority and status this allows us to directly control bonding issues so instead of just feeding at the trough of public money we could hook ourselves an intravenous flow of tax payer funding directly into our coffers without any input or control by the government or any ethics or sunshine requirements.”

County industrial development authorities are authorized by state law to own and develop land, enter contracts and finance projects through revenue bonds, which are tied to the sales or operations from projects that receive financial help.

Regional economic development leaders, clustered in south Tampa, are enthused at the opportunity to bypass the voters will expressed in the defeat the rail tax referendum by declaring the rejected 280 million rail plan as an economic development funded through bonds by the planned agency.

More then serving as an ATM without a PIN code the HEDA will allow unelected uneducated and ethically challenged economic developers to never again ask the voters what they want or think. This plan will take the control and money away from the voters and into the hands of those who call themselves “the right people”.

From 83 Degrees Magazine the new media of Tampa Bay.