The transportation plan getting a closer look today from Hillsborough County commissioners will cost taxpayers more.

However, county officials say the transportation overhaul is necessary as a number of projects slated will vastly improve the area's infrastructure and traffic congestion.

The proposed transportation upgrade is the result of two years of work by Hillsborough County to improve roads, sidewalks, buses and look at other ways to move people.

The commission will get its first look at the comprehensive plan later today.

Some details of the plan include a modernized street car line in Tampa, new bus routes and new road construction countywide.

"We would really like to have a long term source, because so many of these projects take so much time to build: roads, transit," said County Administrator Mike Merrill. "So a 30-year taxes, if that is where we are headed, would be optimum.”

A new sales tax would cost the average homeowner about an additional 50 cents per day. But almost a fifth of the costs would be paid for by tourists and those from outside Hillsborough County.