HB 4098 Texas House · 89th Legislature (2025)

Relating to the authority of certain municipalities to use certain tax revenue for hotel and convention center projects.

HB 4098 allows specific Texas municipalities to use hotel and convention center tax revenue for related projects. It expands eligibility to 16 defined city types based on population thresholds (e.g., cities over 95,000 residents) or geographic criteria (e.g., bordering Lake Lewisville or containing specific landmarks like the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame). The bill amends tax code provisions to permit these cities to pledge existing hotel/convention tax revenue to cover construction costs and project-related debt. This policy change directly affects qualifying cities seeking to finance convention facilities or hotel developments using dedicated tax streams.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

May 2025

House Passage

May 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 27, 2025 Last action May 21, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Engrossed · 4 edits · May 14, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was significantly rewritten to expand eligibility criteria for municipalities to receive tax revenue for hotel and convention center projects. The original version listed specific municipalities by name or narrow geographic descriptions, while the new version uses a much broader set of criteria based on population thresholds, geographic features, and cultural landmarks to determine which municipalities qualify for the tax revenue.

Scope change

The scope of the bill was substantially expanded from a limited list of specific municipalities to a comprehensive set of criteria that could apply to many more municipalities across Texas.

ELIGIBILITY

The list of eligible municipalities was replaced with 64 new criteria based on population thresholds, geographic features (rivers, lakes, borders), cultural landmarks (museums, festivals), and institutional affiliations (universities, state parks).

New eligibility criteria were added including requirements for municipalities that host annual festivals (wine, peach, Cajun), contain specific museums (country music hall of fame, Western American art), or are located near specific geographic features (Cedar Creek Reservoir, Guadalupe River, Joe Pool Lake).

The original specific geographic and population-based criteria that applied to particular municipalities were removed and replaced with the new comprehensive list.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted and cleaned up, removing extraneous metadata and standardizing the formatting of the legislative text.

Floor votes · House May 14, 2025

How they voted

98–44

Passed · 3 other

Total votes 145

May 14, 2025

D Democratic60

57 Yea 3 Nay

95% Yea

R Republican85

41 Yea 41 Nay 3

48% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to Economic Development

upper

May 21, 2025

Introduced

Read first time

upper

May 14, 2025

Introduced

Received from the House

upper

May 14, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed

lower

May 13, 2025

Lower · Passed

Passed to engrossment

lower

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Committee report sent to Calendars

lower

May 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

Committee report distributed

lower

May 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported favorably as substituted

lower

Apr 14, 2025

Lower · Passed

Left pending in committee

lower

Apr 14, 2025

Lower · Passed

Testimony taken/registration(s) recorded in committee

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Committee

Referred to Ways & Means

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Introduced

Read first time

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors