Bill Text: TX HB1896 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to the application of and use of revenue from hotel occupancy taxes imposed by municipalities and counties.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2017-05-29 - Effective on 9/1/17 [HB1896 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HB1896-Enrolled.html

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H.B. No. 1896

AN ACT
relating to the application of and use of revenue from hotel
occupancy taxes imposed by municipalities and counties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 334.001(4), Local Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(4) "Venue" means:
(A) an arena, coliseum, stadium, or other type of
area or facility:
(i) that is used or is planned for use for
one or more professional or amateur sports events, community
events, or other sports events, including rodeos, livestock shows,
agricultural expositions, promotional events, and other civic or
charitable events, provided that a facility financed wholly or
partly with revenue from a tax imposed under Subchapter H is not, or
will not be, primarily used for community, civic, and charitable
events that are attended only by residents of the community; and
(ii) for which a fee for admission to the
events is charged or is planned to be charged;
(B) a convention center, a convention center
facility as defined by Section 351.001(2) or 352.001(2), Tax Code,
or a related improvement such as a civic center hotel, theater,
opera house, music hall, rehearsal hall, park, zoological park,
museum, aquarium, or plaza located in the vicinity of a convention
center or facility owned by a municipality or a county, provided
that a related improvement for a facility financed wholly or partly
with revenue from a tax imposed under Subchapter H must be in the
vicinity of the convention center;
(C) a tourist development area along an inland
waterway;
(D) a municipal parks and recreation system, or
improvements or additions to a parks and recreation system, or an
area or facility that is part of a municipal parks and recreation
system;
(E) a project authorized by Section 4A or 4B,
Development Corporation Act of 1979 (Article 5190.6, Vernon's Texas
Civil Statutes), as that Act existed on September 1, 1997; and
(F) a watershed protection and preservation
project; a recharge, recharge area, or recharge feature protection
project; a conservation easement; or an open-space preservation
program intended to protect water.
SECTION 2. Section 351.001(2), Tax Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(2) "Convention center facilities" or "convention
center complex" means facilities that are primarily used to host
conventions and meetings. The term means civic centers, civic
center buildings, auditoriums, exhibition halls, and coliseums
that are owned by the municipality or other governmental entity or
that are managed in whole or part by the municipality. In a
municipality with a population of 1.5 million or more, "convention
center facilities" or "convention center complex" means civic
centers, civic center buildings, auditoriums, exhibition halls,
and coliseums that are owned by the municipality or other
governmental entity or that are managed in part by the
municipality, hotels owned by the municipality or a nonprofit
municipally sponsored local government corporation created under
Chapter 431, Transportation Code, within 1,000 feet of a convention
center owned by the municipality, or a historic hotel owned by the
municipality or a nonprofit municipally sponsored local government
corporation created under Chapter 431, Transportation Code, within
one mile of a convention center owned by the municipality. The term
includes parking areas or facilities that are for the parking or
storage of conveyances and that are located at or in the vicinity of
other convention center facilities. The term also includes a hotel
owned by or located on land that is owned by an eligible central
municipality or by a nonprofit corporation acting on behalf of an
eligible central municipality and that is located within 1,000 feet
of a convention center facility owned by the municipality. The term
also includes a hotel that is owned in part by an eligible central
municipality described by Subdivision (7)(D) and that is located
within 1,000 feet of a convention center facility. For purposes of
this subdivision, "meetings" means gatherings of people that
enhance and promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry.
SECTION 3. Section 351.007, Tax Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 351.007. PREEXISTING CONTRACTS. (a) If a municipality
increases the rate of the tax authorized by this chapter, the
increased tax rate does not apply to the tax imposed on the use or
possession, or the right to the use or possession, of a room under a
contract that was executed before the date the increased rate takes
effect and [October 1, 1989,] that provides for the payment of the
tax at the rate in effect when the contract was executed, unless the
contract is subject to change or modification by reason of the tax
rate increase.
(b) This subsection applies only to a contract that provides
for the payment of one or more taxes imposed on the use or
possession, or the right to the use or possession, of a room that is
in a hotel, including a tax authorized by Chapter 156 or 352 of this
code or by Subchapter H, Chapter 334, Local Government Code. If a
municipality adopts an ordinance imposing a tax under this chapter
that is not imposed at any rate before the effective date of the tax
prescribed by the ordinance, the imposition of the tax does not
apply to the use or possession, or the right to the use or
possession, of a room under a contract executed before the date the
imposition of the tax takes effect, unless the contract is subject
to change or modification by reason of the imposition of the new
tax.
(c) The tax rate applicable to the use or possession, or the
right to the use or possession, of a room under a [the] contract
described by Subsection (a) is the rate in effect when the contract
was executed. Notwithstanding Section 351.002(a), no tax is imposed
under this chapter on the use or possession, or the right to the use
or possession, of a room under a contract described by Subsection
(b).
SECTION 4. Section 351.101(a), Tax Code, as amended by
Chapters 666 (H.B. 3772) and 979 (H.B. 3615), Acts of the 84th
Legislature, Regular Session, 2015, is reenacted and amended to
read as follows:
(a) Revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax may be
used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry,
and that use is limited to the following:
(1) the acquisition of sites for and the construction,
improvement, enlarging, equipping, repairing, operation, and
maintenance of convention center facilities or visitor information
centers, or both;
(2) the furnishing of facilities, personnel, and
materials for the registration of convention delegates or
registrants;
(3) advertising and conducting solicitations and
promotional programs to attract tourists and convention delegates
or registrants to the municipality or its vicinity;
(4) the encouragement, promotion, improvement, and
application of the arts, including instrumental and vocal music,
dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture, design and
allied fields, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft
arts, motion pictures, radio, television, tape and sound recording,
and other arts related to the presentation, performance, execution,
and exhibition of these major art forms;
(5) historical restoration and preservation projects
or activities or advertising and conducting solicitations and
promotional programs to encourage tourists and convention
delegates to visit preserved historic sites or museums:
(A) at or in the immediate vicinity of convention
center facilities or visitor information centers; or
(B) located elsewhere in the municipality or its
vicinity that would be frequented by tourists and convention
delegates;
(6) for a municipality located in a county with a
population of one million or less, expenses, including promotion
expenses, directly related to a sporting event in which the
majority of participants are tourists who substantially increase
economic activity at hotels and motels within the municipality or
its vicinity;
(7) subject to Section 351.1076, the promotion of
tourism by the enhancement and upgrading of existing sports
facilities or fields[, including facilities or fields for baseball,
softball, soccer, flag football, and rodeos,] if:
(A) the municipality owns the facilities or
fields;
(B) the municipality:
(i) has a population of 80,000 or more and
is located in a county that has a population of 350,000 or less;
(ii) has a population of at least 75,000 but
not more than 95,000 and is located in a county that has a
population of less than 200,000 but more than 160,000;
(iii) has a population of at least 36,000
but not more than 39,000 and is located in a county that has a
population of 100,000 or less that is not adjacent to a county with
a population of more than two million;
(iv) has a population of at least 13,000 but
less than 39,000 and is located in a county that has a population of
at least 200,000;
(v) has a population of at least 70,000 but
less than 90,000 and no part of which is located in a county with a
population greater than 150,000;
(vi) is located in a county that:
(a) is adjacent to the Texas-Mexico
border;
(b) has a population of at least
500,000; and
(c) does not have a municipality with
a population greater than 500,000;
(vii) has a population of at least 25,000
but not more than 26,000 and is located in a county that has a
population of 90,000 or less;
(viii) [(ix)] is located in a county that
has a population of not more than 300,000 and in which a component
university of the University of Houston System is located; or
(ix) [(x)] has a population of at least
40,000 and the San Marcos River flows through the municipality; and
(C) the sports facilities and fields have been
used, in the preceding calendar year, a combined total of more than
10 times for district, state, regional, or national sports
tournaments;
(8) for a municipality with a population of at least
70,000 but less than 90,000, no part of which is located in a county
with a population greater than 150,000, the construction,
improvement, enlarging, equipping, repairing, operation, and
maintenance of a coliseum or multiuse facility;
(9) signage directing the public to sights and
attractions that are visited frequently by hotel guests in the
municipality;
(10) the construction, improvement, enlarging,
equipping, repairing, operation, and maintenance of a coliseum or
multiuse facility, if the municipality:
(A) has a population of at least 90,000 but less
than 120,000; and
(B) is located in two counties, at least one of
which contains the headwaters of the San Gabriel River; and
(11) for a municipality with a population of more than
175,000 but less than 225,000 that is located in two counties, each
of which has a population of less than 200,000, the construction,
improvement, enlarging, equipping, repairing, operation, and
maintenance of a coliseum or multiuse facility and related
infrastructure or a venue, as defined by Section 334.001(4), Local
Government Code, that is related to the promotion of tourism.
SECTION 5. Section 352.0031, Tax Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 352.0031. PREEXISTING CONTRACTS. (a) If a county
increases the rate of the tax authorized by this chapter, the
increased tax rate does not apply to the tax imposed on the use or
possession, or the right to the use or possession, of a room under a
contract that was executed before the date the increased rate takes
effect and [October 1, 1989,] that provides for the payment of the
tax at the rate in effect when the contract was executed, unless the
contract is subject to change or modification by reason of the tax
rate increase.
(b) This subsection applies only to a contract that provides
for the payment of one or more taxes imposed on the use or
possession, or the right to the use or possession, of a room that is
in a hotel, including a tax authorized by Chapter 156 or 351 of this
code or by Subchapter H, Chapter 334, Local Government Code. If the
commissioners court of a county adopts an order or resolution
imposing a tax under this chapter as authorized by Section 352.002
and the tax was not imposed at any rate before the effective date of
the tax prescribed by the order or resolution, the imposition of the
tax does not apply to the use or possession, or the right to the use
or possession, of a room under a contract executed before the date
the imposition of the tax takes effect, unless the contract is
subject to change or modification by reason of the imposition of the
new tax.
(c) The tax rate applicable to the use or possession, or the
right to the use or possession, of a room under a [the] contract
described by Subsection (a) is the rate in effect when the contract
was executed. Notwithstanding Section 352.002, no tax is imposed
under this chapter on the use or possession, or the right to the use
or possession, of a room under a contract described by Subsection
(b).
SECTION 6. To the extent of any conflict, this Act prevails
over another Act of the 85th Legislature, Regular Session, 2017,
relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted
codes.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1896 was passed by the House on April
20, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 142, Nays 2, 2 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1896 was passed by the Senate on May
19, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor