Broward's Penny Tax Shell Game
Broward voters fell for it again.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on us.
The "Penny for Transportation" tax was sold as a fix for gridlock and red lights. Six years later, it looks a lot like the Florida Lottery scam.
Remember that one? New money promised for schools. Old money quietly moved somewhere else.
Broward has its own version. The three seashells.
It's cleaner and slicker, but the result is the same. The county's own budgets show the penny tax backfilling basic operations, bankrolling airport projects, and padding overhead while the roads stay jammed.
In Demolition Man, nobody ever explained the three seashells, where the waste went, or what happened to the paper.
In Broward, it's pretty much the same.
First seashell: The surtax shuffle
This classic Florida Lottery trick used surtax money to prop up county budgets while the County Commission shifted funds out the back.
County records show $113 million in 2024 and $153 million in 2025 of penny tax money moved to transit operations. By 2029, the transfers are scheduled to hit nearly $200 million.
Non-surtax transit funding has dropped 26 percent since before the tax, from $144.5 million in 2018 to $106.7 million next year. This is the portion that was promised to be "supplemented, not supplanted."
Second seashell: The bond millage that never rolled
Debt service went to zero, but the total millage stayed flat.
That shift keeps $56 million in retired debt in county hands each year instead of returning it to taxpayers.
"No rate increase" sounds nice until you read the fine print. It's just more money freed up for the County Commission to spend frivolously.
Third seashell: Oversight without teeth
The Independent Transportation Surtax Oversight Board was supposed to be the taxpayer's safeguard. Voters were told it would "monitor projects and expenditures to ensure delivery on time and within budget."
It does not.
The board can check if spending is "eligible," but it has no say on mismanagement, abuse, or delay. It cannot stop wasteful projects stuck in the mud or investigate why so many of the promises to taxpayers were broken.
Meeting minutes show county staff frame every decision, and members often vote on staff recommendations without debate.
Meanwhile, the surtax has turned into a bonanza for consultants and bureaucrats.
We already caught county staff cruising around in taxpayer-funded Mustangs. But the real winners are the consulting firms on retainer for endless "planning" and "outreach."
MAP Broward's dashboard lists more than 1,100 projects countywide. Few are complete. There is a big problem with getting bus shelters off the ground.
Each project brings new subcontracts, studies, and invoices that keep consultants fed.
The watchdog doesn't bark because the county tied its muzzle.
Cuts for riders, cash for consultants
While consultants cash in, Broward County Transit just cut frequency on major routes like 72 and 2.
Twenty-minute service is now thirty-plus.
The flagship promise of traffic light synchronization is still "in progress" six years later.
Consultants are the only ones seeing green while drivers are stuck in red.
The Taxpayers get Hustled
When county leaders cry poor next year during property tax debates, remember Broward's three seashells.
One hides diverted surtax dollars.
One hides a quiet tax increase.
One hides the mole-eyed watchdog that cannot bite.
All three add up to hundreds of millions that should have been returned to taxpayers in lower tax rates.
Like any street hustle, there is nothing under the cups for taxpayers.