Senate Bill sb3014
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Florida Senate - 2004 (NP) SR 3014
By Senators Crist, Miller, Lee and Sebesta
12-2080-04 See HR
1 Senate Resolution No. ____
2 A resolution recognizing April 21, 2004, as
3 "Hillsborough County Day" in Tallahassee.
4
5 WHEREAS, the area that is now Hillsborough County was
6 first mapped and explored by the Spanish in the early 16th
7 century, purchased by the United States from Spain in 1821 for
8 $5 million, and organized as Florida's 19th county on January
9 25, 1834, by the U.S. Legislative Council for the Territory of
10 Florida, eleven years before Florida was granted statehood,
11 and
12 WHEREAS, Hillsborough was a sprawling area which, at
13 that time, included what is now Pinellas, Polk, Manatee,
14 Sarasota, Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, and Highlands counties,
15 most of Glades and a third of Lee counties, with a population
16 of 836, excluding soldiers and Native Americans, and
17 WHEREAS, the first Commissioners met in 1846, where the
18 topics were taxes, transportation, a new courthouse (the first
19 one being a small log cabin that was burned during the Second
20 Seminole War), and downtown development; and the tax
21 assessment raised $148.69 that year, with pay for the
22 Commissioners set at $2 per day while in session, and
23 WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is located midway along
24 the west coast of Florida, has 1,048 square miles of land and
25 24 miles of inland water area for a total of 1,072 square
26 miles, with the unincorporated area encompassing 84 percent of
27 the total county area with a population of 688,953 and its
28 municipalities, the City of Tampa, incorporated in 1887, a
29 population of 313,611, the City of Plant City, incorporated in
30 1885, a population of 31,573, and the City of Temple Terrace,
31 incorporated in 1925, a population of 21,670 for a total
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Florida Senate - 2004 (NP) SR 3014
12-2080-04 See HR
1 population of 1,055,807, a population greater than the states
2 of Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North
3 Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, and
4 WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is a multicultural,
5 diverse community with 13 percent of its residents
6 foreign-born and 87 percent native, including 47 percent born
7 in Florida and, among people at least 5 years old, 21 percent
8 speaking a language other than English at home, with 76
9 percent of those speaking Spanish and 24 percent speaking some
10 other language, and
11 WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is the state's epicenter
12 of business and commerce, where, between 2000 and 2005, the
13 number of jobs is projected to grow from 672,400 to 1,120,400
14 (66 percent) and is anticipated to remain the primary job
15 generator for the region as it has for the past several
16 decades, with the top five employers by industry being
17 education, health and social services (18 percent), retail
18 trade (14 percent), professional and business services (12
19 percent), finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and
20 leasing (10 percent), and leisure and hospitality (9 percent),
21 and
22 WHEREAS, the county is the home of the University of
23 South Florida, founded in 1956 and its doors opening in 1960
24 with 1,993 students enrolled, now the second largest
25 university in the southeast and among the top 20 in the nation
26 with a total enrollment of 41,392 students hailing from every
27 state in the nation and more than 100 countries and its
28 researchers generating more than $250 million annually in
29 sponsored research contracts and grants, which is a key in the
30 creation and development of the Florida High Technology
31 Corridor, encompassing some 60 percent of Florida's high tech
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Florida Senate - 2004 (NP) SR 3014
12-2080-04 See HR
1 industries, and whose football program will become part of the
2 Big East Conference in 2006 (Go Bulls!), and
3 WHEREAS, Hillsborough Community College serves over
4 44,000 students annually at four campuses across the county,
5 and
6 WHEREAS, the Hillsborough County School District, a
7 charter district, is the tenth largest school district in the
8 U.S., with 194,123 students overall and over 19,200 students
9 who speak over 100 different languages and represent nearly
10 200 different countries, and is the county's largest employer
11 with 28,243 employees, and
12 WHEREAS, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research
13 Institute, a National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer
14 center, one of the top 11 of 39 such centers in the U.S., with
15 patient visits expected to top 200,000 in 2004 and with an
16 economic impact estimated at $142 million, and the Johnnie B.
17 Byrd, Sr., Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute, under
18 development on the USF campus and with its first grant awards
19 occurring in January 2004, are sited in the rapidly developing
20 medical corridor in northeast Hillsborough County, and
21 WHEREAS, the nation's 29th busiest airport, Tampa
22 International, serves over 16 million passengers annually to
23 domestic and international destinations, and three smaller
24 airports, Vandenberg, Plant City, and Peter O'Knight, also
25 serve the flying public, and
26 WHEREAS, the Port of Tampa is Florida's largest cargo
27 port, handling about 50 million tons per year, has four cruise
28 terminals, has foreign trading partners including Mexico,
29 China, Trinidad, Canada, and Brazil, and claims 108,000 jobs
30 in a seven county area and an economic impact of $13 billion
31 regionally, and
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Florida Senate - 2004 (NP) SR 3014
12-2080-04 See HR
1 WHEREAS, Hillsborough's farms produce over $627 million
2 in total annual sales, yielding 90 percent of Florida's
3 strawberries, 39 percent of its tomatoes, and 69 percent of
4 its tropical fish, ranking third in the state in agricultural
5 production and 57th out of a total of 3,150 counties in the
6 nation, and
7 WHEREAS, a plethora of cultural facilities in the
8 county boast an attendance of 5.5 million annually, with an
9 economic impact of $402 million, and range from the Tampa Bay
10 Performing Arts Center and Lowry Park Zoo to The Florida
11 Aquarium, and the county is the home of the publicly owned
12 Museum of Science and Industry, Tampa Museum of Art, and Ybor
13 City State Museum, and
14 WHEREAS, the county is the home of MacDill Air Force
15 Base and the U.S. Central Command, and
16 WHEREAS, the county is also the home of the Super Bowl
17 XXXVII Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Lightning,
18 the five-time national champion Tampa Bay Storm, New York
19 Yankees Spring Training and the Tampa Yankees, a minor league
20 affiliate, both playing at Legends Field, the International
21 Softball Federation in Plant City, and the Outback Bowl, and
22 WHEREAS, the county is the site of the 100-year-old
23 Florida State Fair, the 100-year-old Gasparilla Pirate Fest,
24 the Plant City Strawberry Festival, the Ruskin Tomato and
25 Heritage Festival, and many other fairs and festivals held
26 throughout the year, and
27 WHEREAS, Hillsborough and its municipalities recognize
28 the importance of maintaining its historic districts and
29 buildings with at least seven historic districts in the City
30 of Tampa, three in Plant City, and an additional 64 individual
31 landmarks countywide on the National Registry of Historic
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Florida Senate - 2004 (NP) SR 3014
12-2080-04 See HR
1 Places, with the most well known being the original Tampa Bay
2 Hotel, built in 1891 at a cost of $2.5 million as the palatial
3 terminus of an empire of railroads, steamships, and hotels
4 being built by Henry B. Plant (for whom the City of Plant City
5 is also named), now on the campus of the University of Tampa,
6 its soaring minarets emblematic of the City of Tampa, and
7 WHEREAS, the centerpiece of the environment is the
8 Hillsborough River, 54 miles long and winding through rural,
9 suburban, and urban landscapes and is part of a regional water
10 supply, a significant recreational asset for numerous
11 water-dependent activities, and an aesthetic natural backdrop,
12 also serving as home to extensive wildlife, including the
13 manatee, NOW, THEREFORE,
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15 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
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17 That the Senate recognizes April 21, 2004, as
18 "Hillsborough County Day" in Tallahassee as it celebrates the
19 "Flavors of Hillsborough" at the State Capitol.
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