Llano County workshop details legal limits on hotel-occupancy tax spending as grant pool shrinks

Summary

At a pre-commissioners workshop, Texas Hotel and Lodging Association counsel Justin Bragle told Llano County applicants that every hotel-occupancy-tax expenditure must both directly promote tourism and fit a statutory category; he reviewed allowable categories, answered questions about tiny homes and events, and noted the county's grant pool this year is roughly half last year's amount.

Justin Bragle, general counsel for the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, told a room of grant applicants that county hotel-occupancy tax dollars must meet a strict two-part legal test before they can be awarded.

"Every expenditure must directly promote and enhance tourism and the hotel and convention industry," Bragle said, summarizing the first prong of the test and urging applicants to demonstrate how projects would produce hotel activity.

The second requirement is that the expenditure fit into one of the categories authorized by the tax code. Bragle reviewed the list applicants should use when preparing grant requests: convention centers and visitor-information centers; registration of convention delegates; advertising and promotion; arts-related events and activities; historical restoration and preservation; sporting events that attract tourists and produce substantial hotel activity; and wayfinding or signage.

Bragle used concrete examples…

Llano County workshop details legal limits on hotel-occupancy tax spending as grant pool shrinks

Summary

Subscribe to keep reading