The Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development has released its interim report to the 86th Legislature.
The report examines several topics, including hotel occupancy taxes, regulatory barriers hindering economic growth, environmental safety during emergencies, and waste disposal regulation. For full details and conclusions from the committee, please see the complete report.
Spotlight on Recommendations
Hotel Occupancy Taxes: Study and make recommendations regarding the collection and use of hotel occupancy taxes to increase transparency in the imposition, rate, and use of such taxes.
- Requiring disclosure and itemization of all hotel occupancy tax rates that would be imposed on a room charge in the reservation process and on finalized bills or receipts in order to increase transparency around HOT rates in advertising and billing.
- Expanding the reporting requirements of S.B. 1221, passed during the 85th Regular Legislative Session, to all counties imposing the tax and for all allowable uses of local HOT revenue in order to increase transparency in collection and expenditure of hotel occupancy tax revenue.
- Explore increasing the use of return-on-investment criteria, impact thresholds, or enforcement mechanisms in HOT legislation going forward in order to demonstrate the positive economic impact of the tax.
Regulatory Barriers: Identify options to maintain our state’s competitive advantage and make recommendations to remove or reduce administrative or regulatory barriers hindering economic growth, including permitting or registration requirements and fees.
- The possible allocation of additional resources to, and/or the provision of additional flexibility in administering, the expedited air permitting program.
- The possible allocation of additional resources to fund research focused on the regulatory relief mechanisms currently present in the FCAA.
Environmental Safety: Study the strategies and best practices for ensuring environmental safety during maintenance, startup, and shutdown activities due to emergencies. Recommend actions to improve safety without compromising compliance or penalizing good actors.
- Ensuring that storage tank designs along the Texas coast are protective of human health and safety and the environment.
- Instructing TCEQ to alert all appropriate emergency personnel as soon as a threat is discovered, and to disseminate information to the public in a timely and forthright manner.
- Ensuring that information regarding releases of pollutants is conveyed to the applicable local jurisdictions and authorities.
Waste Disposal Regulation: Study the permitting and compliance processes for waste disposal and processing, including evaluating the criteria for approval, denial, and application return. Make recommendations for improving and streamlining the permitting and compliance processes while maximizing public participation for effective outreach and education. Review the allocation of the Municipal Solid Waste disposal fees and make recommendations regarding allocation methods to adequately support existing programs.
- Requiring a MSW facility to submit a Letter of Map Revision to TCEQ once it is obtained from FEMA, and/or requiring a MSW facility to keep the Letter of Map Revision on file at the site once it is obtained by FEMA and to present it to TCEQ upon inspection.
- Instructing the appropriate entity or entities to evaluate the differences in local floodplain regulations across the state and encouraging regional floodplain management coordination.
- Modify the current Notice of Deficiency process to separate out non-substantive application decencies and require TCEQ to employ an alternative notification to applicants of non-substantive flaws identified in an application.
- Address the declining fund balance in Waste Management Account 0549 by adjusting the statutory fund allocations of the Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Fee.
- Evaluate possible methods to allocate additional resources to TCEQ for MSW facility permitting, investigations, and enforcement.