By Brimer                                             H.B. No. 2844
         76R1177 CBH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the purposes for which the municipal hotel occupancy
 1-3     tax may be used.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 351.001(2), Tax Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7                 (2)  "Convention center facilities" or "convention
 1-8     center complex" means facilities that are primarily used to host
 1-9     conventions and meetings.  The term includes civic centers, civic
1-10     center buildings, auditoriums, and exhibition halls [, and
1-11     coliseums] that are owned by the  municipality or other
1-12     governmental entity or that are managed in whole or part by the
1-13     municipality, hotels owned by the municipality or a nonprofit
1-14     municipally sponsored local government corporation created under
1-15     Chapter 431, Transportation Code, within 1,000 feet of a convention
1-16     center owned by a municipality with a population of 1,500,000 or
1-17     more, or a historic hotel owned by a municipality or a nonprofit
1-18     municipally sponsored local government corporation created under
1-19     Chapter 431, Transportation Code, within one mile of a convention
1-20     center owned by a municipality with a population of 1,500,000 or
1-21     more.  The term includes parking areas or facilities that are for
1-22     the parking or storage of conveyances and that are located at or in
1-23     the vicinity of other convention center facilities.
1-24           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-1           (b)  This Act does not apply to the use of tax revenue
 2-2     pledged to secure bonds issued before the effective date of this
 2-3     Act.  Tax revenue pledged to secure bonds issued before the
 2-4     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
 2-5     date the bonds were issued, and that law is continued in effect for
 2-6     that purpose.
 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.