LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The State of Texas is offering a tax rebate to reward venues that support Texas music, including right here in Lubbock.
The Texas Music Incubator Rebate Program was signed into state law in 2022.
Stacy Keith, director of Lubbock Cultural Arts Foundation, says some of the money music venues and festival promoters pay every year can be returned to them under this program if they qualify.
“It is a state rebate on the amount that they pay on their mixed beverage and wine and beer alcohol sales,” Keith said. “They pay that money anyways to the state as sales tax, and so they can get some of that money back to be able to reinvest it back into their music venue.”
That rebate can climb all the way up to $100,000. Jaclyn Zapata with the Texas Music Office says a lot of thought went into creating this program and figuring out ways to support venues that promote Texas music.
“The State of Texas has realized that music venues and music festivals are incubators for music,” Zapata said. “They are a lot of times where musicians get their starts, in these smaller venues across the state, and we want to do everything we can to keep them open.”
The Texas Music Office visited 13 different cities across the state to host these workshops, with its final stop at The Blue Light in Lubbock’s Depot District on Wednesday. The rebate gives venue owners and festival promoters the freedom to use that money however they see fit.
“They can use it to make capital improvements; they can use it to make renovations on their spaces; they could use to reinvest back into a new sound system,” Keith said.
The Texas Music Office notes roughly half of 2024’s applicants across the state used the money to increase the amount they pay to artists.
The program is not only helping venues bring in talent, it’s helping talent by giving them platforms to grow and succeed as they pursue their careers.
“We’re directly impacting these musicians,” Zapata said. “We’ve had these musicians come and talk to us about the program and say how amazing it is, they actually go out into their communities and tell venues about this program.”
“It’s kind of the pebble in the pond,” Keith said, “and I think this is a pretty big pebble in this bond to be able to have some of this money come back into our community.”
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