By TONY VINDELL
Special to the NEWS
Separate bills introduced by two of Texas’s new legislators to use revenues from the hotel occupancy tax are not to fund a proposed Cameron County Arena, insist area leaders.
The two politicians are Texas Sen. Morgan LaMantia, who represents District 27, and State Rep. Erin Gamez, with District 38.
LaMantia’s bill is known as SB 940 and Gamez’s as HB2282.
The bills were introduced earlier this year – four months after they both were elected in the November election.
According to Gamez’s office, HB 2282 “would add the city of Brownsville to the list of over 40 municipalities throughout Texas that are part of the Qualified Hotel Project Program (Tax Code chapter 351.152). HB 2282 if passed would allow the state share of the Hotel Occupancy Tax at the hotel development in Brownsville to stay in Brownsville to help develop the hotel project, and the 1,000 foot (less than 0.2 miles) zone around the hotel.”
The long-term goal of this bill is to help make downtown Brownsville a destination for economic development and tourism and it’s “not a proposal to build the Cameron County Arena,” she said in a prepared statement.
LaMantia’s bill relates “to the use of hotel occupancy tax revenue by certain municipalities and counties and the authority of certain municipalities to receive certain tax revenue derived from a hotel and convention center project and to pledge certain tax revenue for the payment of obligations related to the project.”
She did not return a message left at her capitol office.
The proposed multipurpose arena/convention center was the focus of a special election held in May 2022 and it was turned down by 9,019 to 8,810 votes. It was the second time voters turned it down within a year.
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