Sections

About Us

 
Make a Donation
Local • Independent • Essential News
 

Tag Archives: Hotel Occupancy Tax

Tovo eyes historic preservation funds for undisclosed property negotiations

The grant program that uses Hotel Occupancy Tax money to help improve historic sites could be put on hold for a year so the city could use its funding to purchase historic sites. At City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee…

Tourism Commission recommendations include gondolas funded by hotel tax

A transit system geared toward tourists, paying Austin musicians to promote local tourism, and a variety of programming and promotional efforts for historic sites are among a new batch of recommended uses for the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars. This…

Music Commission eyes funding apart from hotel tax among 2021 priorities

The Music Commission wants to decrease the role that Hotel Occupancy Tax will play in funding arts and music programs in the coming years, possibly relying more on the city’s General Fund or other revenue sources while the local hospitality…

front of City Hall

City considers racial equity in Hotel Occupancy Tax distribution

Earlier this month, the city’s Economic Development Department provided an update and offered a handful of recommendations for how it plans to use Hotel Occupancy Tax funds to achieve greater racial equity in Austin. The three high-level recommendations mainly have…

Music Commission eyes police dollars instead of hotel tax to support Black music fund

Included in the Music Commission’s request to create a Black Live Music Fund may be a suggestion that the city look for money outside of the Hotel Occupancy Tax – including funds intended for law enforcement – to rebuild the…

Tourism leaders see multiyear hit to tourism business and hotel tax from Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to cause a drop in local tourism and events business for at least five years, with a decline of at least 25 percent in hotel business this year and an ongoing drag on the city’s…

Subscribe to our newsletter

City braces for cuts to cultural arts funding, citing likely drastic hotel tax drop

The city has advised local artists and cultural contractors to hold off on submitting proposals for the next cycle of Cultural Arts project funding because of a likely drastic cut in arts money due to the impact of the Covid-19…

Arts community hears feedback on city's diversity goals for cultural funding

The initial summary of feedback on how the city should consider diversity and equity in funding decisions for Cultural Arts found a wide array of concerns shared from more than 600 participants in recent community input sessions. The presentation Saturday…

County sets up new committee to put pressure on city leaders over Expo Center

Travis County leaders want to put pressure on the city of Austin to help them rebuild the aging exposition center. On Tuesday the Commissioners Court voted unanimously to set up a nine-member committee tasked with “engaging and educating Travis County…

Tourism Commission hears latest on convention center progress, homelessness funds

City staffers are engaged in talks with the owners of two and a half blocks of property located west of the Austin Convention Center in an attempt to learn what kinds of sales, leases or other property agreements can be…

Music commissioners want urgency, care in spending hotel tax money for industry

Members of the Music Commission and interest groups related to the city’s music industry are pushing for quick decisions on how to spend an initial pool of Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars that City Council allocated for the city’s commercial music…

Eckhardt offers the city Palm School in exchange for expo center, hotel tax

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt says that she and her colleagues on the Commissioners Court are willing to give away the Palm School to the city of Austin. But they want a couple of big things in return. In a…

Back to Top