The Hillsborough County Commission voted 7-0 on Wednesday to support Chairman Ken Hagan's motion to look into the use of tourist development tax funds to promote Tampa and Hillsborough County when the Republican National Convention rolls around next summer. Those funds derive from the tax collected by the county on visitors' hotel and motel bills.
The unanimous vote included the two Democrats on the board, Kevin Beckner and Les Miller, though Beckner was emphatic that adequate transparency measures be put in place to insure that those monies weren't spent in a way that could come back to haunt the BOCC.
Miller, who has never attended an RNC and doesn't intend to next year, said that he wanted to make sure that minority businesses get a piece of the action in promoting the region. Miller said the lack of minority involvement was a problem at Tampa/Hillsborough's last major event, the 2009 Super Bowl game.
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2011.