{"id":223860,"date":"2026-04-08T20:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223860\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:35:11","slug":"lisset-hanewicz-calls-on-st-pete-council-to-advance-600m-bond-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223860\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisset Hanewicz calls on St. Pete Council to advance $600M bond proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg City Council Chair\u00a0Lisset Hanewicz<\/a> is working to advance a proposed $600 million General Obligation bond<\/a>. She has asked the Board to send the proposal to the Budget, Finance and Taxation Committee on Thursday. City leaders are starting to discuss a major infrastructure investment package that could go to voters for approval in August.<\/p>\n

The bond proposal comes as St. Petersburg deals with aging infrastructure and more flooding risks after recent storms. The plan would address the city\u2019s needs for resiliency and improvements to stormwater, sewers, and neighborhoods. At Thursday\u2019s City Council meeting, policymakers will have an early chance to share their views before the proposal goes to the Committee. The Council will vote on the referendum language at a later meeting, after the Committee makes its recommendations.<\/p>\n

As the bond gets more public attention, mayoral candidates have different views on the proposal, showing how it could affect the race. They have shared different ideas about how the city should invest in infrastructure and who should pay for it.<\/p>\n

Mayor\u00a0Ken Welch<\/a>\u00a0was one of the first local officials to support the proposal. He talked about the bond during his\u00a0State of the City address\u00a0earlier this year, which was also the day he start<\/a>ed his re-election campaign<\/a>. He said the bond would pay for long-planned upgrades to help with flooding, sea-level rise, and more severe weather, without depending only on utility rate increases.<\/p>\n

Welch has also recognized the challenge of supporting a major borrowing plan while running for re-election, but he said the city\u2019s need for infrastructure investment is too urgent to ignore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

City Council member\u00a0Brandi Gabbard<\/a>, who is also running for mayor, has shown early support for the proposal. At her\u00a0campaign kickoff<\/a> this week, Gabbard said she wants transparency about how the money would be used before voters decide on the measure.<\/p>\n

Gabbard said that paying for the city\u2019s long-standing stormwater needs, which are part of a $700 million master plan, is a top priority. However, she warned that there are still disagreements about exactly how the funds should be used.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate\u00a0Kevin Batdorf<\/a>, who is not currently an elected official, has\u00a0doubts<\/a> about putting a tax-backed bond on the ballot while state-level property tax debates are happening. He said the timing could make it hard for the bond to pass, even though the city needs infrastructure improvements. He also said the next Mayor should be ready in case the referendum does not pass.<\/p>\n

Another mayoral candidate, former St. Petersburg Fire Chief\u00a0Jim Large<\/a>, has not spoken directly about the bond proposal. However, he is known to\u00a0support stormwater and infrastructure<\/a> investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg City Council Chair\u00a0Lisset Hanewicz is working to advance a proposed $600 million General Obligation bond. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,2811,101303,71439,2346,72295,8123,10545,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-223860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-brandi-gabbard","9":"tag-election","10":"tag-general-obligation-bond","11":"tag-jim-large","12":"tag-ken-welch","13":"tag-kevin-batdorf","14":"tag-lisset-hanewicz","15":"tag-referendum","16":"tag-st-pete","17":"tag-st-pete-headlines","18":"tag-st-pete-news","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}