On November 25th the Kerr County Commissioners Court passed a resolution requesting the Texas Legislature to amend Chapter 352 of the Texas Tax Code to allow Kerr County to collect a county Hotel Occupancy Tax. About 80 other counties in Texas currently collect a 7% hotel occupancy tax including many of our neighbors like Bandera, Kendall, Gillespie, Llano, Real and Uvalde counties. Drafting and passing this bill keeps Kerr County competitive with our neighbors.
This 7% hotel tax is collected on overnight stays at hotels and vacation rentals in the county and outside of the city limits of Kerrville or Ingram (both cities already collect this tax). Local hotel occupancy taxes, including a city hotel occupancy tax or a county hotel occupancy tax, apply to a lodging property in the same way as the State of Texas’s hotel occupancy tax. Therefore, if an entity is currently not required to collect the state hotel occupancy tax they would not collect the county tax as the same rules and definitions apply.
And remember, this tax is charged to the customer not the property owner.
In 2023, Kerr County could have earned close to $400,000 in hotel tax collections from visitors to our county. And all of these funds could have been used on the upkeep and renovations of our county owned Hill Country Youth Event Center. This saves your local tax payers dollars!
How can you help? Simply by calling and/or emailing your State Senator and State Representative to let them know you support the legislative efforts for Kerr County to collect hotel occupancy tax. THEN share this message with at least 4 of your neighbors, friends, colleagues or family and ask them to do the same.
Attached are two prompts or examples you could use when you contact your legislator as well as the appropriate contact information. Most important is to let your state legislatures know you support Kerr County's effort to collect a hotel occupancy tax so that visitors to our county can help foot the bill.
Time is of the essence - ACT NOW - to be heard before legislative filings are due!
Call or Email TODAY!
Texas Legislatures for Kerr County Contact information
Senator Pete Flores
(512) 463-0124
To email directly click link below:
William Howe
Policy Analyst for Senator Flores
(512) 463-0124
Representative Wes Virdell
(512)463-0536