Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Hot Collections topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Hotel-occupancy-tax cultural fund collections: March totals $1.96 million; FY25 cultural fund at $7.17 million to date
Summary
City staff reported March hotel-occupancy-tax (HOT) collections and discussed tracking event-driven spikes as the convention center closes and new festivals emerge.
Matthew Schmidt, acting cultural arts division manager, told the Arts Commission that the city collected $1,964,718 in hotel-occupancy tax (HOT) in March 2025, producing $169,486 for the HOT cultural arts fund that month. "The total hotel occupancy tax collection in March was $1,964,718," Schmidt said. He reported that HOT cultural-arts fund actuals for fiscal year 2025 total $7,171,105 to date.
Schmidt and commissioners noted timing lags in reporting: the April presentation covered funds collected in March for hotel stays in February. Schmidt warned that the collections shown in the April slide deck reflect that reporting lag.
Commissioners pressed staff on understanding event-driven spikes and the impending loss of convention-center business. Commissioner Garza asked whether the March figures reflected the impact of a major festival: "When was South by?" Schmidt confirmed it was in March. Commissioner Garza and others said they want to track newer festivals month-to-month — including Bessemer Mucho and a MotoGP-like event mentioned in the discussion — to understand which events drive HOT increases and to anticipate revenue changes once the convention center closes. Commissioner Garza said the commission should prepare for a "severe dip" in HOT numbers when conventions leave, describing an expectation of a "big gap" in March 2026 collections tied to that change.
Schmidt also noted the HOT cultural fund is about $171,000 below where it was this time last year but that collections are "incrementally catching up." He reiterated that FY25 HOT collections will be used to fund programs in FY26.
The commission did not take formal action on HOT policy at this meeting; staff presented the monthly collections and answered commissioners' questions about events, forecasting, and reporting cadence.
Looking ahead, commissioners asked staff to refine month-by-month tracking of events and their HOT impacts so the commission and council can better anticipate revenue shifts tied to conventions and newer festivals.
