TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The city of Tampa spent just more than half its $50 million federal security grant housing and feeding out-of-town law enforcement officers, renting portable toilets and leasing a protest area near the Forum during last year’s Republican National Convention.
According to a report issued by the city Friday, the weeklong gathering also cost the city nearly $677,000 in costs not covered by the federal grant — including $171,000 in lost revenue from closed parking garages, more than $63,000 spent maintaining streets and welding manholes shut, and $28,000 picking up trash downtown.
The report said there was $363.5 million in taxable sales across the region because of the RNC. The convention, which was held in Aug. 2012, filled 92 percent of the region’s hotel beds.
Source: The Associated Press
