80th Legislature: Altering The Allocation Of The Sporting Good Tax For State Parks

Over the summer, there was much discussion concerning the reallocation of the Sporting Goods Tax, which is intended to fund state parks and the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, which administrates the park system.

State Rep. Sid Miller (R-Stephenville) has taken some action in that regard with his HB 318, which would reallocate some of the sporting goods tax.

Currently, the amount of the sporting goods tax that actually goes to support the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife is capped at $32 million.
HB 318 would credit the total revenue from the tax to the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.

The bill would then require that 69 percent of the revenue TP&WD receieves from the sporting goods tax be allocated to the state parks account, with 30 percent allocated to the recreation and parks account.

In short, under HB 318, rather than only a portion of the sporting goods tax going to parks and wildlife, all of it would go to TP&WD, and TP&WD would be required to allocate 69 percent of that to state parks with the remainder going to the “recreation and parks” account.

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