The corporate authorities of any municipality containing 500,000 or more inhabitants may impose a tax prior to July 1, 1969, upon all persons engaged in the municipality in the business of renting, leasing or letting rooms in a hotel, as defined in the Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax Act, at a rate not to exceed 1% of the gross rental receipts from the renting, leasing or letting, excluding, however, from gross rental receipts, the proceeds of the renting, leasing or letting to permanent residents of that hotel and proceeds from the tax imposed under subsection (c) of Section 13 of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Act.
     The tax imposed by a municipality under this Section and all civil penalties that may be assessed as an incident thereof shall be collected and enforced by the State Department of Revenue. The certificate of registration that is issued by the Department to a lessor under the Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax Act shall permit the registrant to engage in a business that is taxable under any ordinance or resolution enacted under this Section without registering separately with the Department under the ordinance or resolution or under this Section. The Department shall have full power to administer and enforce this Section; to collect all taxes and penalties due hereunder; to dispose of taxes and penalties so collected in the manner provided in this Section; and to determine all rights to credit memoranda arising on account of the erroneous payment of tax or penalty hereunder. In the administration of and compliance with this Section, the Department and persons who are subject to this Section shall have the same rights, remedies, privileges, immunities, powers and duties, and be subject to the same conditions, restrictions, limitations, penalties and definitions of terms, and employ the same modes of procedure, as are prescribed in the Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax Act and the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act, as fully as if the provisions contained in those Acts were set forth herein.
     Whenever the Department determines that a refund should be made under this Section to a claimant instead of issuing a credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the State Comptroller, who shall cause the warrant to be drawn for the amount specified, and to the person named, in the notification from the Department. The refund shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of the Illinois tourism tax fund.
     Persons subject to any tax imposed under authority granted by this Section may reimburse themselves for their tax liability for that tax by separately stating the tax as an additional charge, which charge may be stated in combination, in a single amount, with State tax imposed under the Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax Act.
     The Department shall forthwith pay over to the State Treasurer, ex-officio, as trustee, all taxes and penalties collected hereunder. On or before the 25th day of each calendar month, the Department shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller the disbursement of stated sums of money to named municipalities from which lessors have paid taxes or penalties hereunder to the Department during the second preceding calendar month. The amount to be paid to each municipality shall be the amount (not including credit memoranda) collected hereunder during the second preceding calendar month by the Department, and not including an amount equal to the amount of refunds made during the second preceding calendar month by the Department on behalf of the municipality, less 4% of the balance, which sum shall be retained by the State Treasurer to cover the costs incurred by the Department in administering and enforcing the provisions of this Section, as provided herein. The Department, at the time of each monthly disbursement to the municipalities, shall prepare and certify to the Comptroller the amount so retained by the State Treasurer, which shall be paid into the General Revenue Fund of the State Treasury.
     Within 10 days after receipt by the Comptroller of the disbursement certification to the municipalities and the General Revenue Fund provided for in this Section to be given to the Comptroller by the Department, the Comptroller shall cause the warrants to be drawn for the respective amounts in accordance with the directions contained in the certification.
     Nothing in this Section shall be construed to authorize a municipality to impose a tax upon the privilege of engaging in any business that, under the Constitution of the United States, may not be made the subject of taxation by this State.
     An ordinance or resolution imposing a tax hereunder or effecting a change in the rate thereof shall be effective on the first day of the calendar month next following the expiration of the publication period provided in Section 1-2-4 in respect to municipalities governed by that Section.
     The corporate authorities of any municipality that levies a tax authorized by this Section shall transmit to the Department of Revenue on or not later than 5 days after the effective date of the ordinance or resolution a certified copy of the ordinance or resolution imposing the tax; whereupon, the Department of Revenue shall proceed to administer and enforce this Section on behalf of the municipality as of the effective date of the ordinance or resolution. Upon a change in rate of a tax levied hereunder, or upon the discontinuance of the tax, the corporate authorities of the municipality shall, on or not later than 5 days after the effective date of the ordinance or resolution discontinuing the tax or effecting a change in rate, transmit to the Department of Revenue a certified copy of the ordinance or resolution effecting the change or discontinuance. The amounts disbursed to any municipality under this Section shall be expended by the municipality solely to promote tourism, conventions and other special events within that municipality or otherwise to attract nonresidents to visit the municipality.
     Any municipality receiving and disbursing money under this Section shall report on or before the first Monday in January of each year to the Advisory Committee of the Illinois Tourism Promotion Fund, created by Section 12 of the Illinois Promotion Act. The reports shall specify the purposes for which the disbursements were made and shall contain detailed amounts of all receipts and disbursements under this Section.
     This Section may be cited as the Tourism, Conventions and Other Special Events Promotion Act of 1967.