Rocky, lawmaker meet on RDAs

Odd couple doesn't even describe it.

In downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday, a conservative Utah County legislator and a liberal Salt Lake City mayor sat down to sausage and corned beef sandwiches.

Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, and Mayor Rocky Anderson shared lunch for a meeting about a possible soccer stadium, redevelopment agency projects, and global warming, among other topics. It was the first time Bramble met Anderson in the flesh and yet another example of setting aside political difference to come together to talk about a cumbersome topic — RDAs.

The Legislature, which passed a bill Bramble sponsored during the 2005 legislative session, placed a one-year moratorium on RDA projects and permanently removed eminent domain from the arsenal cities use for redevelopment. That has placed Bramble on center stage for local governments.

Since the bill's passage, public education administrators, association of counties officials and taxpayer advocates have banded together to get to the bottom of tax-increment financing, blight studies, eminent domain and sales tax revenue. The result — at least according to Bramble — has been a reluctant nexus of traditional foes.

"Isn't it kind of cool when issues bring people together?" Bramble said. "At least opening up to discussion — I think that's valuable."

The reluctant alliance is seeking to reform RDAs, which have been the favorite tool of cities seeking to revitalize old shopping corners or former industrial sites, for example. In the past, cities have used blight studies to mark areas for redevelopment. Before Bramble's bill, evidence of blight was enough to allow municipalities to use eminent domain to acquire property — an option that was whisked off the table during the 2005 session. (A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision supported eminent domain for private development but ultimately left regulation up to states, so Utah's law remains the last word for cities.)

After a blight study, cities set a base tax rate, send the base money to usual city expenses and use any money above the base rate for a number of years, usually 15 to 20, to redevelop infrastructure in the area — thus providing a lure to retailers who don't have to pay for expensive improvements from their own pockets. Money above the base rate — the tax increment — would normally be split among county, schools and cities, but during an RDA period, all the increment money goes to the city, leaving schools and counties clamoring for a piece of the redevelopment pie.