Senate GOP split on Real funding

Huntsman has called for extending the collection of a portion of the transient room taxes collected in Salt Lake County for an additional five years beyond the 2017 already set in the bill to raise money for the purchase of the land for the stadium.

County officials today plan to consider an interlocal agreement with the state that was still being drafted on Monday. Backers said it would only be for the parking-garage portion of the deal.

A copy of the interlocal agreement was still not available Monday evening. Drafts have been shown to House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, who has been sending them back to the county to be redrafted, council members said.

The agreement will most likely revolve around the county handing back the $20 million that the Legislature authorized the county to use for a parking garage at the South Towne Exposition Center and renovations at the Salt Palace. HB38 authorized the state to use the money and build the parking garage, and the interlocal agreement is "a technical way to give them the money that they've taken," Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said.

"The governor and the Legislature are essentially running the show," he added. "We're not sure where this will ultimately end up."

Councilmen Joe Hatch, a Democrat, and Michael Jensen, a Republican, are pushing the agreement as a "good faith" measure on the county's part, after the county denied Real's initial funding plan last week.

"If this fails, it will be the state of Utah that has to deal with it, not Salt Lake County," Hatch said.

Council chairman Mark Crockett said that if the state is directing the county to participate, the county has no choice but to go along.

"The only remaining question I have is: If the state is asserting the stadium is a state priority, then why is it only one county that is paying for it?" he said.

He added that the county would never have approved the state's funding plan because of the amount of tax money the county would lose. The Real funding plan that Corroon turned down last week called for two $10 million payments that were several years out.

Now, Crockett said, the reduction in tax revenue for the county begins right away. That will make money tight for other cultural and recreation projects, and Crockett said the county will have to look elsewhere for more money.

The Sandy City Council also plans to meet today to pass a resolution expressing intent that the stadium be built there and that the city is prepared to aid the stadium financially.

That resolution says that if the first phase of the soccer project is built, with the $110 million stadium, Sandy can contribute $10 million in community development agency (CDA) dollars. If the project increases to a total cost of $135 million, with a hotel and broadcast studio, Sandy can then contribute $15 million in CDA funds.

The Utah State Fairpark site proposed by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as an alternative location was also discussed by the legislative caucus Monday, Valentine said, but the focus was on the Sandy site.

The fairpark option is "running kind of a parallel track at this point," Valentine said. "It doesn't require the immediate approval of the Legislature, as the transient room tax proposal does."

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