For the purposes of Chapter 26 of the Tax Code the bill would define the following: "eligible coastal municipality" to mean a home-rule municipality that the borders on the Gulf of Mexico and has a population less than 80,000 and has created a park board of trustees under the Local Government Code;
"misspent hotel occupancy tax revenue" to mean an amount equal to the sum of the amount of municipal hotel occupancy tax revenue received by an eligible coastal municipality during the preceding tax year that was spent by the municipality for a purpose not authorized by Chapter 351 of the Tax Code and the amount of other money receive by an eligible coastal municipality for the municipality's park board of trustees in the preceding tax year; and
"misspent hotel occupancy tax revenue rate" to mean the rate expressed in dollars per $100 of taxable value according to the following formula: Misspent Hotel Occupancy Tax Revenue Rate = Misspent Hotel Occupancy Tax Revenue / Current Total Value.
The bill would define the "voter-approval tax rate for an eligible coastal municipality" in Chapter 26 of the Tax Code to be equal the voter-approval tax rate for a taxing unit other than a special taxing unit under current law less the misspent hotel occupancy tax revenue rate.
The voter-approval tax rate for an eligible coastal municipality could be reduced relative to current law to the extent the eligible coastal municipality spent municipal hotel occupancy tax revenue on something not authorized by Chapter 351 of the Tax Code or received money from the municipality's park board of trustees in the preceding tax year.