Hotel occupancy tax collections through June show collections trailing last year; ACME to use FY25 receipts for FY26 grants

Acting Cultural Arts Division Manager Matthew Schmidt briefed the commission on Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) collections through June 2025 and their implications for cultural arts funding. Schmidt reported June’s HOT collections for the cultural arts fund at $57,730 and total HOT receipts for June at $575,476. With the June receipts, the cultural arts fund had reached roughly 70% of its FY25 approved budget, Schmidt said.

Schmidt noted reporting lag times: HOT receipts reflected lodging activity from the prior month, and the FY25 collections will be used to fund programming in FY26. He also cited airport passenger data that indicated total passenger traffic at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in May 2025 was about 1.9 million, a 6.4% decrease compared with May 2024.

Why it matters: HOT is a primary funding source for many of the city’s arts programs; changes or trends in collections affect available grant pools for ACME programs and timing of expenditures.

Schmidt said staff had begun compiling event data to better understand revenue drivers for HOT. He closed by noting that June collections left HOT approximately $67,000 below the same point in the prior year and that staff typically uses a combination of collected receipts and reserves to smooth funding year-to-year. Commission members asked for future visualizations showing year-over-year trends and reserve balances.

Ending: Staff confirmed a hiring/posting plan for a permanent cultural-arts division manager and said ACME will continue monthly reporting of HOT collections and provide additional analytics on trends and reserves at future meetings.