BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4811

By: Cole

Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW) is held once each year in Austin. In 2024, SXSW generated $217.8 million, including $9.6 million in sales tax revenue. However, the bill author has informed the committee that the Austin Convention Center will not be available to host certain SXSW events for at least three years, which is anticipated to raise the costs of hosting the conference. H.B. 4811 seeks to address this issue by making SXSW eligible for funding under the major events reimbursement program.

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. 4811 amends the Government Code to make the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals eligible for funding under the major events reimbursement program and to include South by Southwest among the entities designated as site selection organizations for purposes of the program. The bill exempts the SXSW Conference and Festivals from the statutory provision conditioning the provision of program funding for an applicable event on a site selection organization selecting a site in Texas for the event to be held after considering through a highly competitive selection process one or more sites not in Texas. The bill establishes that, if an endorsing municipality or endorsing county requests the Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office to make a determination for an incremental increase in certain tax receipts for the SXSW Conference and Festivals, the remaining statutory provisions governing the major events reimbursement program apply to that event as if the event satisfied the site selection eligibility requirement.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.