BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4755

By: Lopez, Janie

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that certain small municipalities near the
Texas-Mexico border and the Gulf of Mexico face unique challenges in funding and sustaining public facilities such as cultural heritage museums and convention or multiuse centers and that these facilities often serve as key economic drivers, promoting tourism and local business activity. C.S.H.B. 4755 seeks to address this issue by authorizing certain smaller cities to finance and support the construction, expansion, and operation of convention centers or multiuse facilities using hotel occupancy tax revenue.

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. 4755 amends the Local Government Code to authorize a municipality that has a population of not more than 25,000, contains a cultural heritage museum, and is located in a county that borders the United Mexican States and the Gulf of Mexico to hold an election on the question of approving and implementing a resolution to do the following:

· authorize the municipality to plan, acquire, establish, develop, construct, or renovate a convention center and related infrastructure as part of an existing or previously approved sports and community venue project;

· impose a hotel occupancy tax under statutory provisions relating to certain sports and community venues capped at two percent of the cost of a room; and

· authorize the municipality to finance, operate, and maintain the venue project using the revenue generated from any taxes the municipality imposes under those provisions.

The bill restricts the purpose for which a municipality may impose such a tax to financing a convention center constructed before January 1, 2025. The bill establishes that the authority of the municipality to impose the tax expires on the earlier of the date the debt issued for the convention center described by these provisions is repaid or January 1, 2056. These provisions expire January 1, 2056.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 4755 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 includes provisions absent from the introduced that restrict the purpose for which a municipality may impose a certain hotel occupancy tax to financing a convention center constructed before January 1, 2025, and that establish that the authority of the municipality to impose the tax expires on the earlier of the date the debt issued for the convention center described by the bill is repaid or January 1, 2056. The substitute also establishes that the bill's provisions expire January 1, 2056, whereas the introduced did not.

The substitute omits the provisions from the introduced that did the following:

· included a municipality described by the bill as an eligible central municipality for purposes of provisions relating to municipal hotel occupancy taxes;

· authorized the municipality to use revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax to pay costs associated with the construction, expansion, maintenance, financing, operation, or debt service of a convention center or multiuse facility;

· raised the cap on the municipal hotel occupancy tax rate that the municipality may impose; and

· required the municipality to allocate all revenue received by the municipality that is derived from that increase for the construction, expansion, maintenance, financing, operation, or debt service of a convention center or multiuse facility.

The substitute changes the bill's effective date to September 1, 2025, whereas the introduced provided for the bill's possible immediate effect, contingent on receiving the requisite constitutional vote.