More gyms the better?

An overwhelming majority of Utah residents don't care if the local public recreation center is competing with the private gym down the street.

In total, 75 percent of Utahns surveyed in a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll believe the Legislature should refrain from passing any legislation that would ban local governments from building their own recreational facilities, even if those facilities compete with private businesses.

Just 18 percent of the 413 Utahns polled by Dan Jones & Associates think a ban should be in place. The poll, conducted Jan. 8-10, has a 5 percent margin of error.

Lawmakers aren't considering an outright ban on government-owned recreation centers, golf courses or reception halls, but they are considering a bill this year that would force local government leaders to consider the impacts of their projects on private businesses.

HB76 would require cities and counties to create a commission to whom businesses could appeal the operations of publicly funded projects that compete with them, including golf courses, reception halls and recreation centers.

If the commission finds that a public project is improperly competing with private business and the local government doesn't cease the project's operations, the commission could ask the district court for an injunction.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, would also require the state to set up a similar commission.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said at a recent Government Competition and Privatization Subcommittee meeting that he wants to make sure local government cannot harm the private sector with its ventures, which have built-in advantages because of their tax-exempt status and the ability to cover shortfalls with taxpayer money.

The commissions would help protect the private sector from unfair and inappropriate competition from the public sector, Stephenson said.

In Davis County, such complaints about unfair competition arose when the Davis Conference Center and the South Davis Recreation Center were built. In October, the owner of Xcel Spa and Fitness sold his Bountiful facility to Gold's Gym, saying in a letter to Xcel members that the location had struggled because of the competition from the taxpayer-funded recreation center that had opened last April.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said he agrees that government shouldn't compete with the private industry.

Even so, "private industry, unfortunately, doesn't always and can't always serve the needs of the community," Corroon said.