From Deseret News archives:
Salt Palace expansion bill stalls
Amendment shifts costs away from S.L. and Sandy to county
But proponents of the expansion said they expected the bill would be resurrected next week and will be passed.
On Thursday, SB211 only gained 14 yes votes with four senators absent. A bill needs 15 votes to pass the Senate, and supporters maintained that with the full Senate present the measure would pass.
Senate President John Valentine, R-Provo, told the bill's sponsor, Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan, that the bill would likely be brought back for another vote. The bill remained circled in the Senate Friday when state lawmakers adjourned for the weekend.
Before the vote, the bill was amended to shift some of the expansion costs away from Salt Lake City and Sandy and on to Salt Lake County, which owns the Salt Palace.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon approved of the move, saying he wanted to save Salt Lake City residents from a tax increase.
The amendment cut the city's Salt Palace Convention Center expansion bill by $7.5 million. In turn, Salt Lake County will end up having to pick up that extra $7.5 million, a cost Corroon says he is willing to bear.
"We have some flexibility so we felt we should work with Salt Lake City so they didn't have to raise taxes, which I didn't feel was beneficial to the county as a whole," Corroon said.
Waddoups amended the bill to require that Salt Lake City only contribute to the project for six years instead of 10. That means the city's innkeeper tax would only be diverted from the city's general fund for six years. The tax brings in $1.9 million annually to the city's general fund, which pays for services like fire and police protection. City leaders have said such a hit could lead to a tax increase.
Over six years, $11.4 million would be taken from the fund. That's down from the $19 million city leaders expected to lose if they had to pay for 10 years. An increase to the county's hotel room tax, a shift in collection methods for the state car rental tax and money from Salt Lake County's coffers will fund the rest of the expansion.
Sandy city was taken out of the bill and will no longer be required to contribute. The project includes $60 million for Salt Palace Convention Center expansion and $22 million for a new parking structure for Sandy's South Towne Expo Center.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said Sandy doesn't see as much out-of-town benefit from the Expo Center as Salt Lake City does with the Salt Palace.
"No additional economic activity will be generated in Sandy from the South Towne center project," he said.
Many non-Salt Lake County senators were miffed that portions of a tax on car rentals, which occur in Salt Lake County, would be kept in Salt Lake County instead of going to fund tourism and other programs in their counties.
Salt Lake City leaders maintain the expansion funding scenario is similarly unfair because the state is unwilling to pay for any of the cost. Latest projections show the state will earn an additional $2.2 million in extra yearly tax revenue from the expansion, yet the state isn't contributing any money. Salt Lake City, on the other hand, would only gain $600,000 a year in extra revenue, with Salt Lake County getting a $1.2 million boost.
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com; bsnyder@desnews.com
