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Speakers urge Austin leaders to halt convention center plan, warn HOT funds would be tied up for decades
Summary
Multiple public speakers told the Austin Music Commission that a proposed convention center expansion would lock up hotel occupancy tax revenue for 30 years and divert money from local music, parks and community cultural programs.
Several members of the public used the Music Commission’s public-communications period on June 2 to urge commissioners to oppose the proposed downtown convention center expansion and to back a petition to give voters a say.
Those speakers told the commission that the hotel occupancy tax — often called HOT — is already the city’s largest tourism revenue stream and that an expansion would tie most HOT revenue to debt service and operating costs for decades. “If this convention center goes forward, city staff has told us in writing they have to set aside $5,600,000,000 of revenue over the next 30 years,” said Bill Bynes, identifying himself with Save Our Springs Alliance,…
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