BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3136

By: Gallego

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Uvalde County is host to thousands of tourists each year, especially during the summer months and over Labor Day weekend.  Families, hunters, outdoorsmen, eco-tourists, and many others stay in local hotels while enjoying the wonderful landscape of Southwest Texas.  However, during the months of high tourist activity, Uvalde County also experiences an increase in the costs of maintenance and operation, trash and waste services, and law enforcement, resulting in a significant cost burden for the county.  Use of the county's hotel occupancy tax revenue currently is restricted to the support and promotion of tourism and cannot be used to manage tourist activity.

C.S.H.B. 3136 provides a much-needed boost in the county's funding by authorizing the use of hotel occupancy tax revenue for the promotion of tourism and lodging, as well as for the removal of trash and litter in the state-owned rivers and riverbeds located in the county, and for the provision and maintenance of litter containers on or adjacent to state-owned rivers and riverbeds located in the county and primarily used by lodging guests.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3136 amends the Tax Code to authorize a county with a population of 28,000 or less that has no more than four municipalities and is located wholly in the Edwards Aquifer Authority to use the revenue from county hotel occupancy taxes only as follows: 75 percent for the promotion of tourism and lodging, and 25 percent for the removal of trash and litter in the state-owned rivers and riverbeds located within the boundaries of the county and the provision and maintenance of litter containers on or adjacent to state-owned rivers and riverbeds primarily used by lodging guests located within the boundaries of the county.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 3136 differs from the original by adding to the authorized uses of the 75 percent portion of the revenue the promotion of lodging, which is not in the original. The substitute differs from the original by restricting the authorized use of revenue for the provision and maintenance of litter containers on or adjacent to state-owned rivers and riverbeds to those state-owned rivers and riverbeds primarily used by lodging guests, whereas the original contains no such restriction.