A transit system geared toward tourists, paying Austin musicians to promote local tourism, and a variety of programming and promotional efforts for historic sites are among a new batch of recommended uses for the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars. This week the Tourism Commission unanimously approved a report from its Parks and Environment Working Group […]
Hotel Occupancy Tax
A tax on the rental of a room in a hotel or other rental properties (including apartments) that cost 6 percent of the cost of a room.
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
Music Commission eyes funding apart from hotel tax among 2021 priorities
The Music Commission wants to decrease the role that Hotel Occupancy Tax will play in funding arts and music programs in the coming years, possibly relying more on the city’s General Fund or other revenue sources while the local hospitality industry recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. Restructuring the funding for the Live Music Fund and […]
Posted inCity Hall
City considers racial equity in Hotel Occupancy Tax distribution
Earlier this month, the city’s Economic Development Department provided an update and offered a handful of recommendations for how it plans to use Hotel Occupancy Tax funds to achieve greater racial equity in Austin. The three high-level recommendations mainly have to do with systems to better serve minority communities – especially those with English as […]
Posted inBudget
Music Commission eyes police dollars instead of hotel tax to support Black music fund
Included in the Music Commission’s request to create a Black Live Music Fund may be a suggestion that the city look for money outside of the Hotel Occupancy Tax – including funds intended for law enforcement – to rebuild the local music industry. At last week’s meeting, commissioners said the hotel tax is forecast to […]
Posted inAustin
Tourism leaders see multiyear hit to tourism business and hotel tax from Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to cause a drop in local tourism and events business for at least five years, with a decline of at least 25 percent in hotel business this year and an ongoing drag on the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax collections going forward. A summary of the current state of hotel tax […]
Posted inAustin
City braces for cuts to cultural arts funding, citing likely drastic hotel tax drop
The city has advised local artists and cultural contractors to hold off on submitting proposals for the next cycle of Cultural Arts project funding because of a likely drastic cut in arts money due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. At Monday’s meeting of the Arts Commission, city staff said that Hotel Occupancy Tax […]
Posted inAustin
Arts community hears feedback on city’s diversity goals for cultural funding
The initial summary of feedback on how the city should consider diversity and equity in funding decisions for Cultural Arts found a wide array of concerns shared from more than 600 participants in recent community input sessions. The presentation Saturday at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex in East Austin was attended by roughly 100 people, […]
Posted inAustin
County sets up new committee to put pressure on city leaders over Expo Center
Travis County leaders want to put pressure on the city of Austin to help them rebuild the aging exposition center. On Tuesday the Commissioners Court voted unanimously to set up a nine-member committee tasked with “engaging and educating Travis County residents and community leaders about the value of redeveloping” the facility on Decker Lane. Rob […]
Posted inPlanning
Tourism Commission hears latest on convention center progress, homelessness funds
City staffers are engaged in talks with the owners of two and a half blocks of property located west of the Austin Convention Center in an attempt to learn what kinds of sales, leases or other property agreements can be executed to move forward with an ambitious expansion of the facility. The Tourism Commission received […]
Posted inAustin
Music commissioners want urgency, care in spending hotel tax money for industry
Members of the Music Commission and interest groups related to the city’s music industry are pushing for quick decisions on how to spend an initial pool of Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars that City Council allocated for the city’s commercial music industry. At last Monday’s meeting, representatives from the groups Music Moves Austin and Austin Texas […]
Posted inTravis County
Eckhardt offers the city Palm School in exchange for expo center, hotel tax
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt says that she and her colleagues on the Commissioners Court are willing to give away the Palm School to the city of Austin. But they want a couple of big things in return. In a letter to City Manager Spencer Cronk, Eckhardt proposes the county transfer ownership of the historic […]
Posted inElections
Eckhardt hopes city will pare down convention center plans for sake of Expo Center
Travis County voters gave county government the go-ahead last week to rebuild the aging exposition center on Decker Lane, but it could be a decade before the project breaks ground. County Proposition A, which passed with 63 percent of the vote, authorized the county to levy up to a 2 percent hotel tax to fund […]