The oil boom means full hotel rooms, which means a dramatic increase in collected hotel taxes. City Council will wrestle with what to do with the bonanza, potentially an excess $900,000 for 2013.
I haven't seen that sized contribution to fund balance since the last two years' health insurance. Maybe Mayor New can now buy that fire truck or the city can put it toward fixing/maintaining roads.
If it were budget time, this council might've used it to roll back tax rates a penny or two. A dramatically different council, maybe Mayor, will have that task.
3 comments:
State law prescribes how hotel occupancy taxes must be used. None of the uses you mentioned would constitute a legal use of the tax. In a nutshell, the tax must be used to boost tourism, i.e. putting "heads in beds."
Anthony Wilson
Public Information Officer
City of San Angelo
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.351.htm
Given the restrictions on the use of this money, as shared by Anthony Wilson and Anonymous, at least two projects come to mind, the light fountain in the Concho River and the elevated walking trail around Gun Club Road. We'll see what the discussion holds tomorrow.
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