Tourism aid sidetracked but may get 2nd chance

PARK CITY — Call it "The Tourism Funding Legislation That Wasn't."

You might add "But Soon Will Be."

SB7, thought to be passed by the Legislature during the final minutes of its final day and providing $18 million for tourism promotion in Utah, instead remains in legislative limbo because of a three-word difference between versions approved by the House and Senate.

The words "a reduction of," dealing with funding levels, is in one bill but not the other. It was among amendments in the House Rules Committee that did not make its way to the Senate during the session's last-minute flurry. The difference in the bill versions was noticed days after the session ended.

"It was a glitch when an innocent staff dropped the ball," Dick Bradford, deputy director of the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development and acting director of the Division of Travel Development, told the Utah Travel Council during a Friday council meeting. "The net effect is we didn't have any bill passed."

But that likely will change soon. Bradford said legislative leadership and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. support placing the matter on the call for a special session of the Legislature scheduled for April 20.

The funding bill, if passed as expected, would provide $10 million during the next fiscal year and $8 million the following year to promote Utah to potential tourists outside the state. It also includes a mechanism to get a percentage of tourism-generated sales tax money in later years, up to $3 million annually, used for tourism promotion.

But council members Friday said they would prefer to keep the existing promotion and marketing agency, Riester-Robb, in place this year. A request for proposals could open it up to other agencies but also could stall promotion activities if a new agency has to do lots of preparation for an ad campaign.

Council member Kim McClelland said the council must "pull that trigger quickly" in order to get a campaign in place during the second half of this year and stressed the need for continuity.

Council members and others stressed the short time frame available to produce and run a campaign and demonstrate its effectiveness to the Legislature.

"This is critical, this year, to show success to the Legislature in January, that we not risk a three- or four-month hiatus while we re-examine," said the council's chairman, Randy Harmsen.

"It's a timing issue," McClelland said. "We've got to go forward and can't start from scratch."