HR 9097

1	House Resolution
2	A resolution recognizing April 21, 2004, as "Hillsborough
3	County Day" in Tallahassee.
4
5	WHEREAS, the area that is now Hillsborough County was first
6	mapped and explored by the Spanish in the early 16th century,
7	purchased by the United States from Spain in 1821 for $5
8	million, and organized as Florida's 19th county on January 25,
9	1834, by the U.S. Legislative Council for the Territory of
10	Florida, eleven years before Florida was granted statehood, and
11	WHEREAS, Hillsborough was a sprawling area which, at that
12	time, included what is now Pinellas, Polk, Manatee, Sarasota,
13	Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, and Highlands counties, most of
14	Glades and a third of Lee counties, with a population of 836,
15	excluding soldiers and Native Americans, and
16	WHEREAS, the first Commissioners met in 1846, where the
17	topics were taxes, transportation, a new courthouse (the first
18	one being a small log cabin that was burned during the Second
19	Seminole War), and downtown development; and the tax assessment
20	raised $148.69 that year, with pay for the Commissioners set at
21	$2 per day while in session, and
22	WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is located midway along the
23	west coast of Florida, has 1,048 square miles of land and 24
24	miles of inland water area for a total of 1,072 square miles,
25	with the unincorporated area encompassing 84 percent of the
26	total county area with a population of 688,953 and its
27	municipalities, the City of Tampa, incorporated in 1887, a
28	population of 313,611, the City of Plant City, incorporated in
29	1885, a population of  31,573, and the City of Temple Terrace,
30	incorporated in 1925, a population of 21,670 for a total
31	population of 1,055,807, a population greater than the states of
32	Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota,
33	Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, and
34	WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is a multicultural, diverse
35	community with 13 percent of its residents foreign-born and 87
36	percent native, including 47 percent born in Florida and, among
37	people at least 5 years old, 21 percent speaking a language
38	other than English at home, with 76 percent of those speaking
39	Spanish and 24 percent speaking some other language, and
40	WHEREAS, Hillsborough County is the state's epicenter of
41	business and commerce, where, between 2000 and 2005, the number
42	of jobs is projected to grow from 672,400 to 1,120,400 (66
43	percent) and is anticipated to remain the primary job generator
44	for the region as it has for the past several decades, with the
45	top five employers by industry being education, health and
46	social services (18 percent), retail trade (14 percent),
47	professional and business services (12 percent), finance,
48	insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing (10 percent), and
49	leisure and hospitality (9 percent), and
50	WHEREAS, the county is the home of the University of South
51	Florida, founded in 1956 and its doors opening in 1960 with
52	1,993 students enrolled, now the second largest university in
53	the southeast and among the top 20 in the nation with a total
54	enrollment of 41,392 students hailing from every state in the
55	nation and more than 100 countries and its researchers
56	generating more than $250 million annually in sponsored research
57	contracts and grants, which is a key in the creation and
58	development of the Florida High Technology Corridor,
59	encompassing some 60 percent of Florida's high tech industries,
60	and whose football program will become part of the Big East
61	Conference in 2006 (Go Bulls!), and
62	WHEREAS, Hillsborough Community College serves over 44,000
63	students annually at four campuses across the county, and
64	WHEREAS, the Hillsborough County School District, a charter
65	district, is the tenth largest school district in the U.S., with
66	194,123 students overall and over 19,200 students who speak over
67	100 different languages and represent nearly 200 different
68	countries, and is the county's largest employer with 28,243
69	employees, and
70	WHEREAS, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research
71	Institute, a National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer
72	center, one of the top 11 of 39 such centers in the U.S., with
73	patient visits expected to top 200,000 in 2004 and with an
74	economic impact estimated at $142 million, and the Johnnie B.
75	Byrd, Sr., Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute, under
76	development on the USF campus and with its first grant awards
77	occurring in January 2004, are sited in the rapidly developing
78	medical corridor in northeast Hillsborough County, and
79	WHEREAS, the nation's 29th busiest airport, Tampa
80	International, serves over 16 million passengers annually to
81	domestic and international destinations, and three smaller
82	airports, Vandenberg, Plant City, and Peter O'Knight, also serve
83	the flying public, and
84	WHEREAS, the Port of Tampa is Florida's largest cargo port,
85	handling about 50 million tons per year, has four cruise
86	terminals, has foreign trading partners including Mexico, China,
87	Trinidad, Canada, and Brazil, and claims 108,000 jobs in a seven
88	county area and an economic impact of $13 billion regionally,
89	and
90	WHEREAS, Hillsborough's farms produce over $627 million in
91	total annual sales, yielding 90 percent of Florida's

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.