Lubbock County Needs To Show Need For Expo Center Before Vote
Lubbock County wants to build a new "Expo Center" with a motel/hotel tax.
The motel/hotel tax is a great angle to get something done because it's easy to justify to yourself as "well it's not my money, it's the tourist's money". But have you considered that maybe that money could be used for something that would be more in line with your needs, and/or those tourist's are quite frequently your friends and relatives?
The "Expo Center" would be used primarily for "dirt events". That means, plain and simple, they want to build a place to have rodeos with the occasional Monster Truck. Is that how you want your money spent? If it is, that's okay, but lets at least be transparent about what it is and what it does for Lubbock.
I am never going to go to one of these "dirt" events. It's just not my thing. So the question becomes, "is it good for Lubbock?". That question is not for me to answer, that question is for the county to answer. The county needs to show voters how much money this proposed center is going to circulate around the town.
There are other questions to be discussed as well like, could this be put together with corporate donations? Could this be built by selling naming rights? Also, what happens to the money if this is successful) because politicians don't roll taxes back)? Even worse, what happens if we don't generate enough taxes to pay for it?
We're going to need a lot of answers before this hits the ballot on November 6th.