Ed Montanari is running for the Florida State House. As a current member of the St. Petersburg City Council, his strike out at the most critical moment – when it really counted – would keep him in the minor leagues at best. With that record, should he make it to the Florida State House? He is not focused on what matters to make life better.
Ed’s website highlights “Holding Politicians Accountable,” and to donate to his campaign to “Help Ed make Pinellas affordable again”.
Let’s hold Ed accountable and decide if he will be making Pinellas affordable again.
As a St. Petersburg City Council Member, Ed says he is fiscally conservative, that he treats the city’s money like it is his own, that he wants to make sure the city has funds in reserves when the storms come, and after making sure we have adequate fire and police protection, that we have the funds to pay for the $5 Billion (!!!!) in storm water and sewer repairs that have been identified by the city and are so vitally needed to prevent flooding around the city.
He says we cannot focus on shiny objects but that we need to make sure we have the funds for what matters, including the funds to rebuild the marina and build a needed municipal services building.
But when he voted to build a new baseball stadium, apparently that new shiny object caused him to lose his focus -taking his eye off the ball.
He seems to have forgot the fact that the cost to the residents of St. Petersburg for the new stadium would be at least $1.6 billion, $6,000 for every man, woman and child in the city. And for what? A transfer of an enormous amount of the citizen’s resources to billionaires when a deal could have been negotiated to keep those resources for what really matters to make lives better.
Ed’s answer – “But do you know how hard it was to get baseball.”
One thing Ed did not do was conduct a poll of voters to ask if they would rather have the city spend $1.6 billion on a stadium or save it for what matters to the voters. And it seems he did not consider the poll conducted by the well-respected Mason-Dixon polling company. Voters overwhelmingly said no to spending on a new stadium. And in a recent poll on Nextdoor – to the question – “Should St. Pete. have saved $1.6 billion it is giving the Rays to focus on the $5 billion in needed sewer and storm water repairs,” 84% of responders said we should have saved the money.
Ed Montanari, a man who claims he is a fiscal conservative, running on a campaign to make “Make Pinellas Affordable,” gave billions of dollars of St. Petersburg’s resources away to billionaires – making St. Petersburg LESS affordable – making it much more difficult to fix all of the flooding problems. He focused on the shiny object and not on what matters.
Ed Montanari voted for a deal that is selling land worth as much as $600 million to billionaires for $100 million without getting a current appraisal.
Ed Montanari voted for a deal that is requiring the city to spend $700 million in borrowing costs to help build a stadium – and the Rays keep all the revenue.
Ed Montanari supports corporate welfare.
Ed Montanari is not focused on what matters to make lives better.
Ed Montanari should not be elected to represent Florida House District 60.
