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Sen. Brad Hudson presents bill to reestablish tourism supplemental revenue fund in committee hearing
Summary
Sen. Brad Hudson told the Special Committee on Tourism that the Senate substitute for SB 1000 would reestablish in statute a tourism supplemental revenue fund that had been inadvertently sunset; committee members praised the bill, asked for supporting materials, and raised questions about fund usage; no public testimony was offered.
Sen. Brad Hudson (33rd Senatorial District) identified himself for the record and presented the Senate substitute for Senate Bill 1000, which he said would reestablish in statute the tourism supplemental revenue fund that was inadvertently sunset. Hudson told the committee the house companion previously passed the committee unanimously (12-0) and asked for the committee's support and help advocating for the bill on the House floor.
Committee members responded with broad praise for the legislation and the tourism industry. Representative Vernetti and others described tourism as critical to local economies and urged restoration of budgeted funds to the tourism division. Representative Wilson offered to help circulate Hudson's presentation statistics and Hudson's office agreed to provide the committee with the requested data and materials to aid advocacy.
Representative Durnell raised a specific concern about state funds being directed to a local 'Branson area breaking news' Facebook page, asking for assurance that tourism dollars would not be funneled to that page. Hudson said he was not familiar with that particular Facebook page and does not routinely follow it.
The chair asked for testimony in favor, opposition, or for informational purposes; no witnesses appeared. The hearing concluded with no formal committee action on SB 1000 recorded in the transcript.
Hudson framed the bill as a bipartisan effort to restore a statutory funding mechanism for tourism promotion; the transcript records his claims that tourism supports "hundreds of thousands of jobs" and "billions of dollars of economic impact," which are his representations to the committee and are reported here as such rather than independently verified.
Next steps: the transcript records only the committee hearing and an offer to distribute materials to House members; it does not record a committee vote or further procedural movement on the Senate substitute for SB 1000.
