There will be no brand new fee to fund a quarter million dollars worth of storm water system improvements.
Council rejected Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s call for the new fee to expand the city’s inefficient drainage system.
South Tampa residents wanted the fee, because the area floods routinely during heavy rains.
But others where flooding is minimal wanted to know why they should have to pay for other people’s problems.
There were also worries that a new fee would hit Tampa’s fixed income elderly too hard and that the fee would not solve enough of the city’s drainage issues.
The city is going ahead with an already-passed hike to the stormwater maintenance fee that will mean more frequent street sweeping, ditch and pipe cleaning, and outfall clearing.
That fee goes from $36 to $82 a year for the average homeowner.
