HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3950        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3375

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Natalie M. Blais

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to recover hospitality, visitor and tourism jobs from Covid-19.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3950        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3375

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act to recover hospitality, visitor and tourism jobs from Covid-19.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. The secretary of the executive office of housing and economic development is hereby directed to create a onetime competitive $15,000,000 grant program administered by the office of travel and tourism to provide tourism and visitor marketing funds to businesses and regional tourism councils for the purpose of promoting and advertising visitation and tourism in order to create jobs, support the hospitality and tourism-related businesses in the commonwealth and stimulate the state and local economies of the commonwealth.

(a)   $5,000,000 of said monies shall be allocated to regional tourism councils in order to provide advertising, public relations and other marketing initiatives that will promote tourism and visitation and help recover jobs impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

SECTION 2.  The secretary of the executive office of housing and economic development is hereby directed to create a onetime competitive $15,000,000 grant program administered by the office of travel and tourism for a grant program for small business for marketing campaigns that align with state and regional tourism marketing and promotion efforts.

SECTION 3. Section (a) of Section 13T of Chapter 23A of the general laws is hereby amended by striking out “10,000,000” and replacing it with “15,000,000”.

SECTION 4. Section 13T of Chapter 23A is hereby amended by inserting the following new section:

(f) At the end of each fiscal year, the department of revenue shall provide the amount of all occupancy excise taxes collected over the course of the fiscal year.  In the event the revenue collected from the occupancy excise tax for that fiscal year exceeds that of the prior fiscal year, 10% of that increase shall be deposited into the Tourism Trust Fund.  These funds shall be distributed as allocated in section (d) of this section.

SECTION 5. Grants from the amounts collected pursuant to subsection (a) of section 13T of chapter 23A of the General Laws allocated to regional tourism councils pursuant to clause (ii) of subsection (d) of said section 13T of said chapter 23A shall be distributed not later than September 1 of each fiscal year. Grants from the amounts collected pursuant to subsection (b) of section 13T of chapter 23A of the General Laws allocated to regional tourism councils shall be distributed not later than September 1 of each fiscal year according to the current allocation formula.

SECTION 6. The secretary of the executive office of housing and economic development is hereby directed to make an application for a waiver for the commonwealth to utilize United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant funds to be directed though the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism to the regional tourism councils for visitation and tourism travel recovery marketing and promotion.