Committee advances hotel‑occupancy omnibus, adds 13 communities to qualified hotel program

The Senate Economic Development Committee adopted a committee substitute to House Bill 2,974, an omnibus bill covering city and county hotel‑occupancy tax measures and additions to the Qualified Hotel Project program.

Justin Bragle, general counsel for the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, testified in support and described the qualified hotel project provision as “vitally important to a lot of our communities.” He told the committee the bill “adds 13 new communities to the Qualified Hotel Project program, but does so in a way that is very clean and streamlined and very much in the norm of how we tend to add cities to the program over the years.”

Bragle also noted that while the bill carries a fiscal note, those estimates do not always reflect program outcomes because “very few of these projects are ever actually constructed,” and the state has mechanisms to protect the treasury, including a 20‑year “true up” enacted last session and biennial reporting by the comptroller on the program’s health.

The committee adopted the substitute by unanimous consent and reported it favorably to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass and be printed. The committee additionally recommended the measure for the local and uncontested calendar.