AI-assisted research summary: Certain municipalities may use hotel tax revenue to build and maintain specified sports-related facilities, but they must track attributable hotel revenue, reimburse excess spending after seven years, and keep related tax allocations from dropping below the prior average during that period.
Sec. 351.10712. ALLOCATION OF REVENUE FOR CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF SPORTS-RELATED FACILITIES BY CERTAIN MUNICIPALITIES. (a) This section applies only to: (1) a municipality with a population of at least 95,000 that is located in a county that is bisected by United States Highway 385 and has a population of not more than 170,000; and (2) a municipality 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. (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a municipality to which this section applies may use revenue derived from the tax imposed under this chapter to construct and maintain: (1) a sports facility located in the municipality; or (2) a multipurpose convocation center capable of hosting intercollegiate athletic events on land owned by a state university if the municipality leases the land on which the center will be located from the university for a term of at least 25 years. (c) A municipality that uses revenue derived from the tax imposed under this chapter for a purpose described by Subsection (b): (1) shall determine the amount of area hotel revenue attributable to the sports events and tournaments held at the sports facility or multipurpose convocation center for seven years after the date the municipality first uses hotel occupancy tax revenue for the purpose described by Subsection (b); (2) shall at the end of the seven-year period described by Subdivision (1) reimburse from the municipality's general fund to the municipality's hotel occupancy tax revenue fund any hotel occupancy tax revenue expended on the sports facility or multipurpose convocation center during that period in excess of the amount determined under Subdivision (1); and (3) may not during the seven-year period described by Subdivision (1) reduce the percentage of revenue from the tax imposed under this chapter and allocated for a purpose described by Section 351.101(a)(3) to a percentage that is less than the average percentage of that revenue allocated by the municipality for that purpose during the 36-month period preceding the date the municipality first uses hotel occupancy tax revenue for the purpose described by Subsection (b). Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 952 (H.B. 4347), Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2019. Amended by: Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 469 (H.B. 4103), Sec. 2, eff. June 14, 2021. Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 644 (H.B. 4559), Sec. 235, eff. September 1, 2023.