Salt Lake County resorts want cut of tourism taxes

Salt Lake County ski resort owners want some of their tourism dollars sent back up the mountain.

Despite getting a $400,000 slice of the county budget Monday, leaders of the Ski Salt Lake coalition asked the county council for a cut of the room and restaurant tax that funds county projects like the Salt Palace and the Expo Center.

"We would like to keep what we generate," said Gary DeSeelhorst, president of Solitude Mountain Resort. "We're not asking to take anyone's else's piece, but we need a permanent mechanism to reinvest in Ski Salt Lake."

Ideally, DeSeelhorst said the Ski Salt Lake program needs between $750,000 and $1 million a year to rival Summit County ski resorts.

"We're at a complete disadvantage to Summit County," he said. "At the end of the day, our budgets don't compete."

In its third year, the Ski Salt Lake program sold 46,000 Super Passes in last year's ski season for Salt Lake County's resorts, which meant about $1.8 million in sales for the program. The Ski Salt Lake Super Pass gives skiers access to all four Salt Lake resorts — Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude and Alta — as part of a package deal including accommodations and UTA transportation.

Diane Binger, president of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the program's success translated to a huge profit for Salt Lake County in room and restaurant taxes, which currently are not invested back into the Ski Salt Lake program.

In the 2002-2003 ski season, Salt Lake resorts lured 1.4 million skiers to the slopes, with nearly half of those coming from out of state. Those skiers spent about $182 million during their ski vacations, according to Bureau statistics.

"This is pretty revolutionary," Binger said. "There's no other place in the world that has ski resorts in such proximity to downtown amenities."

But DeSeelhorst said without more county funding and a share of the room and restaurant tax pool, the program doesn't stand a chance against Summit County resorts that get about 93 percent of the county's tourism tax funds.

"We have a product that will allow us to compete, but we will go nowhere with this project without the continual support of advertising dollars," he said.

But Jim Bradley, an at-large county council member, said he wasn't sure if comparing Summit County ski and tourism budgets to Salt Lake was fair. In towns like Park City, he said, the main budget item is promoting ski resorts, whereas Salt Lake leaders also have to concentrate on other forms of tourism like convention centers.

"Park City is kind of a one-horse town. We're not," he said.

The County Council declined to make an immediate decision on additional funding for the Ski Salt Lake program above this year's $400,000.

---

E-mail: estewart@desnews.com