A crowded field took to the stage of the Cuban Club in Ybor City Friday, as candidates for the Hillsborough County Commission appeared before the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
Several bones of contention revolved around property taxes, luring the Tampa Bay Rays - and cutting the county's health care program for the poor.
The recent DOGE - or Department of Government Efficiency - report that recommended ending Hillsborough's indigent health care program drew heated comments from many candidates. Aileen Rodriguez, who is campaigning for the at-large seat held by Joshua Wostal, said the county could afford to keep those kinds of services.
"Being fiscally responsible does not mean cutting the Hillsborough County Healthcare plan, cutting after school programs, cutting services to our community," Rodriguez said. "We can make smart decisions to protect our budget and our taxpayer dollars, and we can still serve our community."
Wostal pushed for creation of the DOGE committee and backs the cuts that were recommended.
"Half of the stuff in there of the findings were stuff that they noted in the DOGE report that I had already uncovered over the past three and a half, four years," he said.
The recommendation would cut nearly three hundred million dollars a year from the county's budget.
READ ALSO: Hillsborough County's DOGE committee targets $678 million in spending
Incumbent County Commissioner Harry Cohen opposes getting rid of the indigent healthcare program - and said he opposed the DOGE project from the start.
"I actually voted against even forming the committee at all, and the reason was because I thought it would just simply become a political football that would do the would attempt to do the job that is the county commission's job," he said. "The county commission is the DOGE committee. That is our job is to scrutinize the budget, look for waste, look for fraud, look for abuse, and we have internal auditors both from the clerk's office and from the county attorney's office that are constantly looking."
Here's the candidates for Hillsborough County Commission. Districts 5 and 7 are at-large, meaning all voters in the county can vote in these races regardless of where they live.
County Commissioner, Dist. 1
Harry Cohen (DEM)
Jackie Toledo (REP)
County Commissioner, Dist. 3
Luiz F. F. Garcia (REP)
Gwen Myers (DEM)
County Commissioner, Dist. 5
Stacy Hahn (REP)
Neil Manimala (DEM)
County Commissioner, Dist. 7
Aileen Rodriguez (DEM)
Joshua Wostal (REP)
Several of the candidates also differed on spending public money to help build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. They were asked if they would support placing a referendum on the ballot whether the public supports a deal.
Most candidates supported waiting until the terms of the deal are clear. But candidate Neil Manimala said there's no way to realistically get it on the ballot between now and November.
"I think that we elect our county commission and our city council members as well to kind of make decisions quickly," he said. "I don't agree with how much of a rush there seems to be with our current deal. As much as I want the race to stay here, we have to play hardball.
Wostal has been hostile to the deal from the start.
"It is literally just me standing between you and the rich people from getting your money that will compromise our ability to continue to fund public safety, which was already acknowledged by our chief financial administrator on the dais, it will compromise our ability to properly fund our already owned assets of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Lightning," he said. "So if you enjoy those sports teams, expect for them to get a cut as well. It is only me standing in between you and the rich and the powerful of getting $2 billion of your money."
ALSO READ: Uncertainty looms as Hillsborough could lose hundreds of millions from property tax cuts
An amendment on the November ballot would raise the homestead exemption statewide, which would significantly cut revenues for cities and counties. Manimala said putting Amendment Three on the ballot by state lawmakers was ill-conceived.
"When it comes to the discussion of Amendment 3 as a whole in general, I am not against any proposal to cut taxes. We absolutely need to be thoughtful about finding ways to do that," he said. "This amendment, however, this referendum kind of got passed through Tallahassee without much thought. It's kind of like taking someone to surgery without looking at their X-ray or signing someone up to amputate their leg without checking the side."
"You'd sue your doctor for malpractice if that were the case. And right now that doctor is politicians up in Tallahassee trying to play political games with us, the patient," said Manimala, who is a doctor. "You'd walk out of that operating room as soon as you find out that that was the kind of leadership you're presented with."
