Board Meeting Tonight

We have a number of items to discuss at tonight's board of alderman meeting. One item on the agenda is the municipal complex, which is long overdue for more discussion and, more importantly, action. Second is a item of increasing our hotel/food/bev tax by 1% to be earmarked towards a convention center. Now, I would really like to have a convention center, but this is the first move towards that I've heard and I'm not sure this is the step we should take. My biggest concern is that, as nice as having one would be, it seems like a secondary issue compared to the problems we are facing with our streets and drainage. I was knee deep in water a month ago when it rained and flood someone's house. If we were to go up on that tax at all, I'd personally rather see it earmarked towards streets or another critical area, and fund the convention center through some other means. Perhaps through some public/private partnership between the city/county/university and an investment firm. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm certainly willing to listen to any input from readers of the blog and people in attendance at tonight's meeting.