2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB4396
HB4396 adds the American Performance Horseman and the American Rodeo to the list of events eligible to seek funding through Texas's major events reimbursement program.
Official caption: Relating to the eligibility of the American Performance Horseman and the American Rodeo for funding under the major events reimbursement program.
Official report lists House author(s): King. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB4396 adds the American Performance Horseman and the American Rodeo to the list of events eligible to seek funding through Texas's major events reimbursement program.
- Being listed is a gateway to applying, not an automatic grant.
- The existing program requires a local request and supporting site-selection documentation.
What does it do?
HB4396 adds the American Performance Horseman and the American Rodeo to the list of events eligible to seek funding through Texas’s major events reimbursement program. It also adds Teton Ridge Live Productions and Teton Ridge The American, LLC to the program’s list of site selection organizations. The act was signed June 20, 2025, and took effect September 1, 2025.
Being listed is a gateway to applying, not an automatic grant. The existing eligibility requirements still govern these events: competitive site selection considering an out-of-state site, the specified sole-site requirement, no more than one occurrence per year, an estimated incremental tax-receipt increase of at least $1 million, and a timely anti-human-trafficking plan. HB4396 does not give these two events an exemption from those conditions.
The existing program requires a local request and supporting site-selection documentation. It uses specified local contributions and a capped state tax-revenue contribution tied to the program’s estimate of additional tax receipts. Disbursements pay eligible event-contract obligations, subject to approval and spending restrictions; they are not unrestricted payments merely for appearing on the list. See the request requirement, state contribution and disbursement rules.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill proposed the same two event additions and two organizations. The House committee substitute consolidated the amendments, corrected drafting references and used inserted subdivision labels instead of renumbering the later entries. Although the introduced caption mentioned single-event and single-year classifications, its operative text did not enact a separate exemption from those program rules; the final bill does not do so either.
The House committee, engrossed, Senate committee and enrolled operative texts match. The text index, amendment index and history show the committee substitute and no indexed floor amendments. Other events already appearing in the reprinted lists were not all newly authorized by HB4396.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Organizers and qualifying host communities for these two events gain access to a potential source of event-cost reimbursement. Local businesses could benefit from event-related activity, but eligibility alone does not establish additional tourism, net economic gains or the size of an award.
The program can use public tax revenue and local contributions, so an approved reimbursement has a public funding cost. Existing rules limit allowable expenses, allow reduced disbursement when actual attendance is significantly below estimates, and govern the return of remaining money. HB4396 does not name a payment amount or itself appropriate a fixed grant; the existing program separately authorizes qualifying fund disbursements without an appropriation.
The latest listed fiscal note, on the engrossed bill, anticipated no significant state or local-government fiscal impact and assumed costs could be absorbed within existing resources. That forecast does not mean an approved award uses no public money, nor does it prove either event has received funding.
Review boundary: This explains HB4396’s eligibility additions and the existing program’s main funding conditions. It does not audit an application, an award, attendance figures or the events’ actual economic impact.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
