BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4222

By: Louderback

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that counties bordering the Gulf of Mexico, such as Victoria County, have the authority to impose up to a seven percent hotel occupancy tax in unincorporated areas, although current law does not authorize those counties to impose the hotel occupancy tax on a hotel within the city limits of a municipality contained within the county. H.B. 4222 seeks to address this issue by allowing Victoria County, under the hotel occupancy tax structure, to impose a two percent tax within the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction of cities authorized to collect a tax under current law, within the county, such as the City of Victoria.

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

H.B. 4222 amends the Tax Code to authorize the commissioners court of a county that has a population of more than 90,000, is located adjacent to a bay connected to the Gulf of Mexico, and contains a portion of the Guadalupe River to impose a hotel occupancy tax at a rate capped generally at seven percent of the price paid for a hotel room, except that the cap is instead two percent of that price if the hotel is located in a municipality that imposes a municipal hotel occupancy tax applicable to the hotel or in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of such a municipality.

H.B. 4222 authorizes such a county to use its county hotel occupancy tax revenue, in addition to the authorized uses of such revenue prescribed in current law, to make repairs and improvements to the county airport or to provide reimbursement for repairs and improvements to the airport but prohibits the county from using that revenue for those additional purposes as follows:

· in a total amount that would exceed the amount of hotel revenue in the county that is likely to be reasonably attributed to guests traveling through the airport during the 20‑year period beginning on the date the county first uses the tax revenue for that purpose; and

· after the 20th anniversary of the date the county first uses the revenue for that purpose.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2025.