Convention Center Upgrades Designed to Improve the Experience. Nancy Sarnoff, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
(Some very selective quoting from behind the Chron's pay-wall. Please go read the entire article)
These improvements are part of the $1.5 billion worth of public and private development work underway on the east side of downtown, which is being revamped to make it more appealing to residents, workers and visitors.
Officials from Houston First, a quasi-public agency that manages Houston's convention facilities, toured with a small group through the area Monday, showing off some of the changes specific to the Brown center at a cost of $175 millionI think this a valid question given that almost everyone, excepting Sylvester Turner and Chris Bell maybe, believe that the City is in a financial crunch.
A crunch that might call into question the wisdom of building a 10-story office building designed, primarily, to provide Houston First with some "world class" digs, all at taxpayer expense of course.
Now, the good folks over at Houston First will tell you that the tax money is from Hotel occupancy taxes and that Houstonians are "not going to pay the tax" which is a falsehood in and of itself. Even if you don't stay at a local hotel (and there are many reasons why you could have to) there's still the fact that this is money diverted from the general fund (not in the same manner as TIRZ of course) that could be used for other purposes.
I find it interesting that the Chron's bag of idiots has suddenly found religion on TIRZ, but remains firmly in the corner of unelected, largely unaccountable agencies like Houston First, who have budgets in-line with them.
The fact is that Houston's tax-income structure is as big a mess as their spending. Both are out of control and are in need of a serious overhaul. And, no, repealing the pillow-soft, voter-imposed spending cap isn't the sole answer, nor are tax increases or pension reforms or any other "magic bullet" that the current group of pretenders for Mayor are proposing.
Houston government has been ran rough-shod since the days of Lee P. Brown, a full accounting and overhaul are not only necessary, but long overdue. One key way to address this is for Houstonians to get it right this time regarding the Mayor, and City Controller. There are candidates who can do this on the ballot, and ones who can't (or won't).
Far be it from me to tell you who those are. It would be nice however if what remains of local media in Houston would ask those questions so you could determine the answer for yourself.
Alas.
