FL: Tampa Bay Area Business Leaders Lobby on Contentious Transit Bill

More than a dozen top business local executives went to Tallahassee with an appeal in the days following last week's political showdown between three GOP senators from Tampa Bay over a regional transit bill.

The nonprofit Tampa Bay Partnership had planned the lobbying trip anyway.

But the delegation arrived just a day after Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, watched in frustration as fellow Republican senators Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg and Tom Lee of Thonotosassa amended his bill to overhaul the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) during a tense meeting of the Senate Community Affairs Committee.

As approved on April 17 by the committee, which Lee chairs, the amendment would require legislative approval for any local spending on a light rail system and would prohibit the authority from spending money to push for light rail in a voter referendum. The changes are seen as a serious blow to the independence of the authority.

Read the complete article at http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/tampa-bay-area-business-leaders-lobby-on-contentious-transit-bill/2321463