From Deseret News archives:
House panel OKs tourism tax bill
Some county representatives in September had voiced concerns to the Tourism Task Force about whether the bill would lead to the state wanting to control how such money is spent, or that the state would want to get some of that money. However, no one spoke in opposition to HB40 on Monday, and it was passed out unanimously by the House Business and Labor Committee.
The bill calls for counties to report to the state on their use of tourism, recreation, cultural and convention facilities tax funds, known as the TRCC tax assessed at restaurants. It also calls for the counties to report on the use of the TRCC and transient room tax, or TRT or hotel room tax, by certain categories.
The TRT report would detail spending for recreation, tourism, film production and conventions, plus the building and operation of tourism facilities. For TRCC, counties would need to list spending on financing tourism promotion or developing and operating tourism-related facilities.
"There's $60 million that's being collected on a local level," said Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, the bill's sponsor and co-chairman of the task force.
"That's a significant amount of money. . . . Within Utah, we have a very diverse geographic and economic balance, and I think it's good it's collected on a local level, but I think it's also good that we as a state are able to look at how the money is being spent."
Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, commended the bill.
"I think this is a good idea," Dunnigan said. "Part of me doesn't like to put in extra reporting duties on the counties. I'm generally not in favor of that. However, I really think it would be a good idea to see where our tourism tax dollars are going."
Adams clarified that the bill is not designed to affect counties' authority on spending the tax funds.
"There's absolutely nothing in the bill that requests cooperation or requires them spending money in any way other than what they're doing right now," Adams said.
Jim McNeil of United Concerts said the accountability in the bill is "very important." He described some TRT fund spending as "good" and some as "bad," noting that often private enterprises must compete against facilities built with tax funds raised by counties.
Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, lauded the spirit of cooperation she said exists between counties and the state travel office. The bill, she said, might foster that cooperation in coordinating advertising activities between the two.
"I wish that they had the climate and the will to do this 10 years ago," Allen said.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
