And in Hillsborough county, they mucked up progress towards not just rail transit, but transit in general. Rail was pitched and debated at several of the committee meetings, but in the end the committee members excluded light rail from their final recommendation. The plan formally rejected was the HartRail project which could have been as simple as a north-south light rail connector, or as elaborate as a sprawling rail metropolis reaching out to all areas of Hillsborough County with both light rail and commuter rail. Had it fared well with the committee, the HartRail proposal would have revolutionized Tampa transit. The Committee of '99 might have dissed rail, but when it came to sparing car-huggers and rail opponents, it didn't.
Roads cost money too, and the committee reminded everyone of it.
Just to manage road development the committee's plan called for a huge tax increase that scared everyone. Anything the committee had to say at all was quickly buried after two Hillsborough County Commission meetings to discuss moving ahead with their ideas. For the HartRail project, this was the last anyone would hear anything about it in publicized Hillsborough politics. Oddly enough the committee action is a victory for light rail of sorts. Perhaps the Committee of '99 didn't actually kill chances for the rail as much as it did to reflect a standoff between mass transit advocates and local car-captive drivers.