BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4090

By: Troxclair

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Travis County Exposition Center was built in 1983 and is an arena facility that is used for events that draw patrons from across the State of Texas and the United States, including horse shows, arts and craft shows, the Lone Star Round Up Auto Show, Texas Rollergirls, Rodeo Austin, motorcycle enthusiast events, and others. In 2022, Rodeo Austin drew more than 455,000 visitors to the exposition center over a two-week period according to local news reports. The Local Government Code authorizes a supplemental hotel occupancy tax to be imposed for sports and community venues, contingent on voter approval. Arenas, stadiums, coliseums, and municipal parks and recreation systems are approved venues for purposes of this tax, while exposition centers are not. C.S.H.B. 4090 seeks to allow for Travis County to use revenue derived from the hotel occupancy tax imposed for sports and community venues to finance certain venue projects at the Travis County Exposition Center.

In addition, the approval of Proposition A by voters in Travis County in 2019 authorized the county to start collecting hotel occupancy tax revenue in the City of Austin and the rest of Travis County once the city pays off the bonds issued for the 2002 expansion of the Austin Convention Center. The city has already collected sufficient revenue to retire the debt and is holding the funds collected from hotel consumers, yet continues to collect the hotel tax. C.S.H.B. 4090 seeks to end this practice.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 4090 amends the Local Government Code to set the date on which the authority of a municipality with a population of 750,000 or more that is primarily located in a county with a population of 1.5 million or less to impose a hotel occupancy tax for sports and community venues ends at the earlier of the following dates:

· the date on which all obligations regarding venue projects have been paid in full;

· the date on which the municipality has collected the amount of money attributable to the tax imposed that is sufficient to pay the obligations in full; or

· the date on which the total amount of money, exclusive of guaranteed interest, necessary to pay the obligations in full has been set aside by the municipality in a trust account dedicated to the payment of the obligations.

C.S.H.B. 4090 authorizes a county to use revenue from the hotel occupancy tax imposed for sports and community venues to acquire, construct, improve, and equip a venue project that is an exposition center and is located in such a municipality, as well as related infrastructure to be constructed on an area or facility that is part of a municipal parks and recreation system. The bill authorizes the county to pledge the revenue to the payment of obligations the municipality or county issues to finance the venue project infrastructure.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 4090 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute revises the authorization present in the introduced for a municipality or county to use the revenue from the hotel occupancy tax imposed for sports and community venues for a venue project in an applicable municipality by omitting the authority granted to a municipality and by limiting the venue projects to which the authorization applies to an exposition center.