'No Tax for Tracks' Advocate Cited as a 'Top Good Guy' for 2014

Watchdog.org lists one Floridian among its 17 Top Good Guys around the nation for 2014: Barb Haselden.

Haselden, says the website, probably saved her fellow Florida taxpayers $2 billion. For her effort, she earned the wrath of powerful political, business and media interests.

"Haselden and her merry crew, No Tax for Tracks, had the gall to question the cost and the value of a 24-mile light-rail line connecting St. Petersburg to Clearwater," said Florida reporter Will Patrick. "Hers was a classic David vs. Goliath battle over public money."

It was nasty, she told Watchdog.

Haselden went to dozens of transit authority meetings, decoding and alerting the public to a web of interests that stood to benefit from the project. They made signs, organized on Facebook, knocked on doors, made phone calls and provided a voice of dissent at public meetings.

Despite a $1.2 million effort that included misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal terrorism grants, county voters rejected what would have burdened them with the highest sales tax rate in Florida.

Outgunned and outspent, No Tax for Tracks beat the elites.

It was a huge investment, but I did it, Haselden told Patrick. Im not a genius or an expert, but I wouldnt let them get around me. Anyone can do this. Just start in your own county.