Lajitas
When it comes to legislative politics in Texas, the early bird gets the worm—or at least, that’s what officials in Brewster County are hoping. State leaders meet in Austin only every two years, meaning that there’s a lot of ground game to be laid in the off years between sessions, particularly for groups with niche or hyperlocal concerns.
Justin Braigel of the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association—a lobbying group that’s represented the industry in the state for over a hundred years—gave a presentation to help local officials and business owners understand what went down in the 2025 session and how to get a jump on 2027. “Our mission is really very simple,” Braigel explained. “We support all the legislation and bills filed that make it easier to operate tourism businesses and hotels.”
The Legislature’s biggest priority every other year is passing the state’s budget, so groups like the Hotel and Lodging Association make sure that the needs of folks in the industry don’t get lost in the shuffle. Of the nearly $338 billion budget passed last session, $127 million was specifically earmarked for tourism promotion. “We make sure that the Legislature actually spends that money on tourism,” Braigel said.
This year, it was tough to keep lawmakers focused on that mission as issues like school vouchers and THC legalization dominated the conversation during the regular session. During the overtime session called in the summer, Democrats fled the state in hopes of breaking quorum to block a controversial redistricting scheme pushed by President Trump to benefit state Republicans.
Almost every session, hotel occupancy tax (HOT) funds are a hot issue for communities that make their livelihood by tourism, but it can be difficult to convince top lawmakers to feel the same urgency. By state law, HOT funds can only be used for tourism promotion through narrowly-prescribed methods, but local governments can file bills in an attempt to carve out exceptions.
Last session, the Brewster County Tourism Council’s neighbor to the north, Visit Alpine, lobbied to repeal a special law that requires the city to spend more than 50% of its HOT funds on tourism advertising. Big Bend area legislators Eddie Morales in the House and Cesar Blanco in the Senate filed companion bills, both of which died just before the end of the session.
Braigel said that the Alpine bill—and 37 other cities and counties with hyperlocal tourism-related requests—was killed in part by fighting over restrictions on hotel development in North Texas. He explained that bills like the Alpine HOT law go on the Legislature’s local calendar, where non-controversial and hypothetically easy-to-pass laws are scheduled. “It only takes one member of the Legislature to speak against the bill in order to kill it,” Braigel said. “Some of the new members that came into the Legislature felt that the way they could get their voice heard was by killing the local calendar.”
Legislators regrouped and added all of the local tourism bills to a big omnibus bill that included the controversial hotel development provisions, dealing the final blow. “I was disappointed, we’d tried to get [the Alpine] bill passed for a while,” Braigel said. “But those will all come roaring back in the next legislative session.”
Robert Alvarez, executive director of Visit Big Bend, worried that local tourism bills might have another rough go in 2027 if many of the same legislators remained in office—but Braigel said there was plenty of potential for shakeups, with every member of the House and half of the Senate up for election.
Instead, Braigel thought it was a good idea to approach the next legislative session as a clean slate and praised Brewster County’s hard work. “Start thinking about what you’re looking for,” Braigel advised the members of the council. “I hold you all out as an example to other places in Texas about how to do it right.”