Tampa Tea Party Fights Public Spending On Infrastructure

The city of Tampa hopes to get a big boost from the Republican National Convention there this week. The 1988 bestseller "Megatrends," declared Tampa America's next great city.

But there's been little infrastructure investment, the downtown is empty at night and The Tampa Bay Online reports that behind the scenes, business owners have begun to talk about providing political cover for officials looking to invest. Cover from whom?

From increasingly vocal Tea Partiers who object to spending, some of them citing a theory that intelligent land use management is a UN conspiracy.

Tea Partiers have successfully stopped a transportation tax that would allow for the creation of a city light rail service. Some local businesses think that Tea Party efforts are slowing investments in the area.