Tampa Bay Partnership

Regional indicators: the cornerstone of the Partnership's work is the regional competitiveness report, a data-based assessment of Tampa Bay's strengths and weaknesses, compared to 19 peer and aspirational markets nationwide. Since its launch in 2017, this report has contributed to the development of common metrics and shared priorities for the Tampa Bay region, as well as the establishment of key public policy areas for the Partnership. In 2023, the Partnership published the sixth edition of the regional competitiveness report, which was released at the annual state of the region community event. In 2023, the Partnership partnered with Florida blue to publish a report, benchmarking uptown, a miniature version of our regional competitiveness report focusing on one neighborhood in the city of Tampa (continued on schedule o) the report focused on access to transportation, healthcare, and education among many other metrics to reveal the differences faced by residents of the uptown neighborhood in comparison to the city and larger region. The report was rolled out to local elected officials, business officials, and nonprofit stakeholders with a bus tour through the neighborhood.

Transportation: transportation continues to be one of the region's greatest challenges, as the ability to provide meaningful economic opportunities and a higher quality of life to Tampa Bay residents becomes increasingly constrained by a lack of transit options and limited regional connectivity. To change that dynamic, the Partnership advocates for regional connectivity and improving transit funding and availability. The Partnership continues to advocate for increased regional transportation planning and has helped to convene regional meetings between hillsborough, pasco, and pinellas county officials to move towards consolidation of their three separate metropolitan planning organizations (mpos) into one regional body.

Housing affordability: the 2023 regional competitiveness report revealed significant affordability issues in the Tampa Bay region, especially around housing. In response, the Partnership established a housing affordability task force to further explore the issue and shepherd a research initiative from the Partnership. The research report, which will explore the housing affordability issue from both a quantitative and qualitative approach, will examine the needs within the hillsborough, pasco, and pinellas county-region while also mapping out the future needs for housing. This research will be ongoing into the next fiscal year and grant support is provided by jpmorgan chase and duke energy.

Talent: the regional competitiveness report continues to reveal significant opportunities for improvement throughout the region's talent pipeline, particularly in comparison to its peer communities. The Partnership has subdivided the talent working group into two subcommittees, focusing on workforce and education. The workforce subcommittee has elected to focus on moving the needle on the high number of disconnected youth (those 16-24 neither employed nor enrolled in school) in our region. The group continues to explore best practices regarding increasing high school graduation rates, connecting graduating high school students to career paths in industries where advanced degrees may not be needed, and exploring improving the number of credentials and certifications received by residents in the region. The subcommittee is also focused on increasing skills-based hiring among employers in the region to help boost the labor force participation rate in the region. The education subcommittee focuses on improving the number of 3 & 4-year-olds enrolled in school, kindergarten readiness, and third grade reading scores with an eye for how these metrics impact the success of students in the future and the talent pipeline.