Travis County officials are considering a 2 percent hotel-motel tax as a new approach to pay for road and drainage improvements near a Formula 1 race track. They estimate that this operation will probably cost around $6 million. This is expected to draw 100,000 racing fans to southeastern Travis County annually starting in 2010. Some people are considering that F1 should pay and open a road to the site. Most of the commissioners think that this is a very good and appropriate idea. Because, we wouldn’t have to pay for the large amount of visitors in our state. Voters still need to approve how revenue from the tax would be spent. The earliest the county could call an election would be 2012.
Austin currently collects 9 percent hotel-motel tax, and the state collects a 6 percent tax. The most they can tax on hotel and motel rooms is 2 percent and an additional 2 percent county hotel tax. The county issued a permit last month that allows developers move dirt on the side of the track. Related buildings begins, organizers must obtain the approvals from the county and the City of Austin before the construction of the track.
According to Country Judge Sam Biscoe, this idea is planning more that anything else, he said. “if there is a way to shift the cost of road and drainage improvement cased by Formula 1 to patrons of the facility, then it seems to me to be fair to county residents and local taxpayers to do it.” In 2009, Austin had more than 21,000 hotel rooms and 885 rooms in the rest of the country, according to county staffers. Harris County’s 2 percent hotel-motel tax in part plays the county’s debt on the Reliant Astrodome and Reliant complex. The sports authority has its own 2 percent hotel-motel occupancy tax for Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and Reliant Stadium.
