Taking a cue from major metro areas like Houston, the city of Beaumont is proposing to expand its Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) rate for overnight visitors to the city. Moving the rate to 17%, the tax placed on persons staying in hotel/motels in Beaumont is a 2% increase over last year, making the Southeast Texas hub for the Golden Triangle on par with some of the highest HOT taxes in the state. The tax isn’t the highest, as Christina Lokey pointed out to council when asking the elected leaders to adopt the fundraiser – some metros take up to 19%, she said. Lokey did not publicly address which communities tax at the highest rate.
Beaumont City Attorney Sharae Reed, in written reports for the council packet, advised that the proposed extra 2% “Venue Tax” can be used as “a possible funding option for the proposed hotel and convention center projects.” Before the matter can be added to the ballot for voter approval, a resolution must be submitted to the Comptroller to receive an analysis of its financial impact, however. At the Aug. 5 meeting of the Beaumont City Council, the group agreed to send the matter to the Comptroller for approval.
The official resolution approved by the city leaders states the project could, however, be a sports complex – as voiced in recent council meetings, although not reflected in general conversation about the voter-funder imitative that remains in a constant state of flux at the municipal level. Citing Chapter 334 of the Texas Local Government Code, Beaumont Mayor Roy West affixed his signature to a resolution that “authorizes the City Council to designate various sports - and community-related capital improvements - including convention centers, convention center facilities, and related improvements in the vicinity of convention centers - as a ‘venue’ and to designate methods of financing to help fund the planning, acquisition, establishment, development, and construction of the venue and related infrastructure…”
Defining “related structures,” city staff asked the elected officials to keep the scope broad, as reflected in the written resolution provided by staff for approval as it “defines ‘related infrastructure’ to include ‘any store, restaurant, on-site hotel, concession, automobile parking facility, area transportation facility, road, street, water or sewer facility, park, or other on-site or off-site improvement that relates to and enhances the use, value, or appeal of a venue, including areas adjacent to the venue, and any other expenditure reasonably necessary to construct, improve, renovate, or expand a venue, including an expenditure for environmental remediation.”
According to the resolution, the plan may include scrapping and replacing the current Civic Center and City Hall building, attributed to unnamed “studies” that recommend the “next phase” of downtown progress as “renovating and expanding the Beaumont Convention Center - including replacing the existing center” to benefit “the city.”
Further affirmed in the city resolution is that the council finds that the Venue Project “is not and will not be primarily used for community, civic, and charitable events that are attended only by residents of the community…”
In other HOT news, the Jefferson County tax of 2% is utilized to grant funds to local initiatives that drive tourism and “heads in beds” stays at already-in-business hotels/motels in Southeast Texas. Until Sept. 5, the Jefferson County Tourism Committee will accept applications for grants to be awarded for tourism related projects and events benefiting Jefferson County. Applications may be obtained by calling (409) 842-0500 or online at www.co.jefferson.tx.us under “Economic Development,” followed by “Hotel Occupancy Tax Funds Application.”