Hillsborough County Commission candidates talk Rays, property taxes and indigent healthcare

A crowded field took to the stage of the Cuban Club in Ybor City on 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 healthcare program for the poor.

The recent Florida DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency – report that recommended ending Hillsborough's indigent healthcare 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 a county DOGE liason committee and backs the cuts recommended by the panel of commission-appointed volunteers.

"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 3½-4 years," he said.

The recommendations would cut nearly $300 million a year from the county budget.

ALSO READ: Hillsborough County's DOGE committee targets $678 million in spending

Incumbent 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 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."

Several of the candidates also differed on spending public money to help build a stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. They were asked if they would support placing a referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot on whether the public supports the deal.

Most candidates supported waiting until the terms of the deal were clear. But 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 Rays to stay here, we have to play hardball.

ALSO READ: Final agreement reached on Rays stadium. Next up: votes by city and county

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."

The Legislature placed an amendment on the November ballot that would raise the homestead exemption, which would significantly cut revenues for city and county governments. Manimala said the measure 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.

ALSO READ: Uncertainty looms as Hillsborough could lose hundreds of millions from property tax cuts

"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 Brandon urologist. "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."