AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 67, relative to government finances.
SB1672 restructures how certain state and local tourism-related revenues are governed and spent in a metropolitan government with a large convention center and tourism development zone. The bill creates a new Joint Capital Tourism Board, made up of legislative, executive, and local tourism/convention officials, and places it administratively under the comptroller of the treasury. That board is given authority to guide the use of excess revenues tied to convention center and tourism financing laws, including funds connected to significant tourism events, capital city economic assistance, public safety, streetscape cleanliness, and capital improvements in the tourism zone.
The bill also revises multiple revenue-allocation statutes to prioritize convention center funding, debt service, tourism promotion, and related public safety and infrastructure costs. It extends and clarifies the use of privilege taxes, surcharges, and sales tax apportionments for a publicly owned convention center, and it allows certain revenues to support a future large-scale expansion, local infrastructure improvements, and economic assistance for eligible businesses and commercial property owners in the tourism district. The act includes confidentiality provisions for applications and proprietary information, open-meetings and public-records rules with exceptions, and a sunset structure that dissolves the board when excess revenues are exhausted, subject to a limitation during apportionment periods.
SB1672 amends Tennessee Code Annotated Titles 4, 7, 8, 10, and 67 to create a new governance structure and redirect specified tourism and convention-related revenues in a metropolitan government. It changes how excess revenues from a convention center authority are allocated, expands the permitted uses of convention center funds and tourism taxes, extends apportionment periods in tourism development zones, and requires additional oversight by the comptroller and the new board. The bill affects the Convention Center and Tourism Development Financing Act, tourism development zone provisions, privilege tax and surcharge statutes, and sales tax revenue distribution rules.
The bill appears to have been generally supported in committee and on final passage, with unanimous or near-unanimous committee recommendations and a strong final floor vote. The Senate State & Local Government Committee recommended passage 9-0, and the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee recommended passage 10-0. On final third consideration, the bill passed overwhelmingly 82-6, indicating broad support for the underlying tourism-finance framework despite some opposition. The failed motion to consider Amendment #3 also suggests there was debate over specific changes, even though the bill itself ultimately advanced comfortably.
The main points of contention appear to center on control, transparency, and the use of tourism-generated public revenues. The bill gives the new Joint Capital Tourism Board significant authority over excess revenues and allows closed executive sessions for certain tourism-event and proprietary-information discussions, which may raise transparency concerns. It also directs funds toward a large future convention center expansion, local infrastructure, and economic assistance for businesses in the tourism zone, which could be controversial because it prioritizes a specific metropolitan area and uses tax revenues for targeted economic development. The recorded opposition on the floor suggests some members objected to at least parts of the financing structure or amendment package, even though the bill passed decisively.