By:  Haywood                                          S.B. No. 1395
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the definition of a convention center for purposes of
 1-2     the hotel occupancy tax.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 351.001(2), Tax Code, is amended to read
 1-5     as follows:
 1-6           (2)  "Convention center facilities" or "convention center
 1-7     complex" means facilities that are primarily used to host
 1-8     conventions and meetings.  The term means civic centers, civic
 1-9     center buildings, auditoriums, and exhibition halls[, and
1-10     coliseums] that are owned by the municipality or other governmental
1-11     entity or that are managed in whole or part by the municipality,
1-12     hotels owned by the municipality or a nonprofit municipally
1-13     sponsored local government corporation created under Chapter 431,
1-14     Transportation Code, within 1,000 feet of a convention center owned
1-15     by a municipality with a population of 1,500,000 or more, or a
1-16     historic hotel owned by a municipality or a nonprofit municipally
1-17     sponsored local government corporation created under Chapter 431,
1-18     Transportation Code, within one mile of a convention center owned
1-19     by a municipality with a population of 1,500,000 or more.  The term
1-20     includes parking areas or facilities that are for the parking or
1-21     storage of conveyances and that are located at or in the vicinity
1-22     of other convention center facilities.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           (b)  This Act does not apply to the use of tax revenue
 2-3     pledged to secure bonds issued before the effective date of this
 2-4     Act.  Tax revenue pledged to secure bonds issued before the
 2-5     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
 2-6     date the bonds were issued, and that law is continued in effect for
 2-7     that purpose.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.