The Houston Business Journal reports:
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said Friday that his office had collected and distributed more than $8.1 million in hotel-occupancy taxes during the third quarter of 2005, an increase of nearly $575,000 over the same period last year.
“Even with our hotels filled for weeks with evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita — most of whom were exempt from hotel taxes — we still saw one of our best quarters in four years,” Bettencourt said. “Just as some of us predicted, the taxes waived for the evacuees produced no losses. That was tax money we never would have collected anyway.”
Although tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees began arriving in Houston-area hotels and motels in August and September, they were exempted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry from all hotel-occupancy taxes.
The hotel occupancy tax is 17 percent in most areas of the county, with shares of the revenue going to the city, the county, the state and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. The Harris County Tax Office collects the tax for the county and the sports authority.
Well, now the new soccer team won’t have to pay for its own turf.
