Our Commissioners Court recently received a number of messages asking us to rescind the hotel occupancy tax (HOT) that was unanimously approved by the court on Nov. 25th. This blog is an attempt to set the record straight on the HOT as I believe much of the reaction was the result of misleading information published in one of our local papers (they have since issued corrections). Note that the HOT is now in the hands of Senator Flores who agreed to put forth a bill in 2025 to enact the HOT in Kerr County’s unincorporated areas.
Prior to the commissioners’ court approval of the HOT on November 25th, a HOT was discussed in the commissioners’ court budget workshop that was held on July 1st in which I presented proposals for various capital projects that came out of the office space committee that I chaired. If you view the YouTube video from the workshop (link provided below), you will see that one of the suggested methods to fund the Youth Event Center indoor arena improvements ($2,500,000) was to impose a HOT, although no decision was made on funding at that point in time (it was later agreed to fund $700,000 in FY 2024-25 to replace the indoor arena roof and bring the electrical system into code).
I also provided the same information on the proposed indoor arena improvements and funding options along with information on other capital projects in both of the town hall meetings I held in October. A pdf copy of the presentation was sent to my distribution list (over 400 Kerr County residents) via my October 29th email for those who were unable to attend either town hall meeting as well as a link to a video of the meeting (see my blog “October 24th Town Hall Meeting”).
I assure you all that I am opposed to any increase in taxes on Kerr County property taxpayers. However, my 2 years as a county commissioner has shown me that it is not so easy to “live within your budget” or “stop spending so much”, especially in an environment where inflation is out of control, all our costs have dramatically increased, crime is up thanks to open boarders, and over 20% of our property owners have frozen county property taxes. My thinking in voting for the hotel occupancy tax was that visitors, who may benefit from our events, would help pay for the improvements to the Youth Event Center Indoor Arena so we could avoid raising property taxes on Kerr County residents. HOT funds will also be used to promote events in Kerr County that we hope will bring additional visitors to the county which should help increase demand for short term rentals. Personally, I do not believe that a 7% incremental tax on short term rental stays will cause people to travel and stay elsewhere. The 6% state occupancy tax is already applicable, whether folks with B&Bs or VRBOs are charging that tax or not (the county has not yet obtained data on those rentals). Neighboring Gillespie, Kendall, Bandera, Uvalde and Medina counties all have a HOT in their unincorporated areas, so if this HOT passes, Kerr County short term rental fees will remain competitive.
In closing, know that I try to keep my constituents informed and I encourage everyone to reach out if you have any questions about anything involving the Kerr County commissioners’ court. If anyone would like to be added to my distribution list, simply send an email to rpaces@kerr.co.tx.us asking to receive future updates.
Link to July 1st Budget Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMk8bBSYbY (My presentation on capital projects starts at 41:30 minutes into the video. Jake Williamson, HCYEC manager talks about HOT and tourism impact at 1:05 minutes and the funding options for the indoor arena come in at 1:09 minutes.)