Wednesday, the Jefferson City Council decided to put a new half percent sales tax on the February ballot.

The so-called “Transformation Project” is really 30 different projects intended to spur almost $41 million dollars of economic development.

On the top of that list: renovations at the historic Missouri State Penitentiary totaling more than $7 million dollars.

The project will throw about $10 million dollars toward a proposed conference center that many hope will go on the penitentiary site.

A 400 space downtown parking garage will also be built behind the Hawthorn Bank building on High Street.

We asked one of the transfomation project's biggest supporters why voters should approve this tax hike come February, "I would say really research the projects and ask questions about what we're trying to do with this investment in the community and make a determination of what they want Jefferson City to be in the future, and I think they'll find this is the avenue to make that happen." said Ken Hussey, co-chair of the Jefferson City Transformation Committee.

If you're a voter who isn't on board with the sales tax increase you can expect a big campaign to get you to change your mind.

Chamber of Commerce President Randy Allen said tonight's show of support will help their efforts, "I think it went wonderful, a ten zero vote, a lot of people here showing support for the process. We have a lot of work to do to explain this to the voters and we intend to do that".

One more big project to note is the St. Mary's redevelopment at a cost of about $8 million dollars.

After St. Mary's moves into it's new state of the art facility on the city's west side council members want to make sure the current building is used.

Lincoln University has already expressed an interest in moving its nursing program into the building.

To see a list of all 30 projects click on Transformation Projects Appendix.