The Nation: The RNC in Tampa: They Didn’t Build That

The RNC in Tampa: They Didn’t Build That

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this week’s festivities simply would not have been possible without massive infusions of public dollars and government-funded projects.

Here is a quick look at all the ways government money has made the RNC in Tampa Bay possible:

The convention site, the Tampa Bay Times Forum, is a publicly financed and publicly owned venue. It was built in 1996 by the Tampa Bay Sports Authority, a public agency created to develop major sports attractions in the city. The project was majority financed using $80 million in city and county bonds, backed in part by taxes. To this day, the Forum is actually owned by Hillsborough County, and leased back to the Authority.

Both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions are directly financed, in part, by taxpayer money. The Presidential Election Campaign Fund gave public grants of $18,248,300 to each convention, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The city of Tampa Bay undertook a wide variety of public projects—financed by federal and local dollars—to prepare the area for convention-goers. The city paid for $2.7 million in beautification projects and infrastructure upgrades to get ready for the RNC, which improved highways, planted trees, and redesigned signage. The city has also received $11 million from the federal government to complete The Riverwalk, a two-mile greenspace near the Forum and utilized by many RNC attendees.

The federal government also doled out a $50 million grant to provide security for the RNC, which is being used to pay police overtime and enhance equipment.

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/169623/rnc-tampa-they-didnt-build#