Tooele city considering own PAR tax

TOOELE — At least four counties in Utah have considered, or are now considering, sales tax increases to fund art and recreation.

Salt Lake County has its ZAP (zoo, arts and parks) tax. Utah County residents last year voted against a proposed PAR (parks, arts and recreation) tax. And this year, Davis and Weber counties will vote on similar taxes.

And for the first time in Utah, a city may implement its own PAR tax.

Residents in Tooele this November will be asked whether they want their sales tax increased by one-tenth of 1 percent to fund expansion of existing parks and, eventually, creation of new parks throughout the city.

Mayor Charlie Roberts said Tooele is the first city to take advantage of a law passed by the 2001 Legislature that gives cities permission to enact arts-and-recreation taxes, an option previously open only to counties.

The law still gives counties the first shot at approving such a tax. But should a county decide not to do so, individual cities within that county can have a go at it.

Roberts said city officials wrote Tooele County commissioners a letter asking them to put a countywide PAR tax on the ballot last year, but the commission voted against it. So in February, the City Council unanimously approved this year's citywide ballot item.

The tax, Roberts said, would let the city do "all those things we'd like to do every year, but we just don't have the dollars."

The first priority, he said, would be for the city to move ahead on a park planned for northeast Tooele, the area of the city that has seen the most growth in recent years.

Five years ago, the city bought a 26-acre parcel in that area of town — but with an estimated price of $125,000 per acre to develop a park, nothing has yet been done, Roberts said. The PAR tax would bring in about $300,000 a year and would help the city get moving, he said.

Roberts said the tax increase would boost sales tax in the city from 6.25 percent to 6.35 percent, still below Salt Lake County's rate.

In addition to the park in northeast Tooele, the money could be used for other parks and arts funding in the city, at the council's discretion, Roberts said. He said there is no park in southeastern Tooele, "so we need to look at possibilities of a park in that area." Also, he said youth sports leagues have enough playing fields for weekly games but struggle to find room for all teams to practice.

Ultimately, Roberts said, Tooele would like to use the funding to develop a trail system.

On a case-by-case basis, council members could devote some of the PAR revenue for nonprofit cultural arts groups' events. For example, Roberts said, if the Utah Symphony wanted to offer a performance in Tooele, PAR money could help make it a reality.