Stadium is tax priority, county promises

A battle over political winks and nods regarding financing for a soccer stadium left the Salt Lake County Council pointing fingers Tuesday.

With accusations being tossed about, one question was never answered: Did the Legislature really have an "understanding" with the county to use hotel taxes to build the soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake?

Council members Michael Jensen and Joe Hatch promised legislators they would make sure the first priority for hotel taxes collected in the county was to fund the Sandy stadium. House Speaker Greg Curtis has said the council members' promise to the Legislature constituted an "understanding" the county better not break.

To combat any possible repercussions, the council passed a resolution Tuesday promising the Legislature the council will keep the soccer stadium as a first priority for hotel room tax funding. If the county chooses not to partially fund a soccer stadium, the resolution says they won't spend the hotel-tax money on any other projects.

"They didn't write it into law, but this is a promise from us to them," Hatch said. "Legislation is sausage making, and it's not always pretty. It's commitments and people stating things in public."

Such an understanding never made it into the actual state law, allowing the county to continue to collect the hotel room taxes. "Because we gave our words, they felt they didn't need to put it in the language," Jensen said of the Legislature.

"Could you please not do that again in the future?" Councilman Mark Crockett asked Jensen.

Throughout the legislative session, the council took a position on several bills, but not the bill that would create a possible funding mechanism for a stadium for Real Salt Lake.

It wasn't until after Mayor Peter Corroon last week nixed the idea of hotel-tax funding for the soccer team that questions arose about what had been promised to the Legislature. Real Salt Lake officials say they need $45 million in public funding to buy land and build sewers, curbs and other infrastructure.

Both Hatch and Jensen insist they have the right to go to the Legislature and lobby for bills, just as Crockett lobbied against the hotel-tax bill in a committee meeting. "We weren't speaking for the council," Jensen said.

Either way, the council is on the hook. In a March meeting, Councilman Randy Horiuchi warned that if the county torpedoed stadium funding, the county's credibility would be "damaged to the point that if we ever had a legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, this will serve as a reminder you should never do business with Salt Lake County."

Several members of the council said Tuesday that they weren't comfortable with the way the whole stadium funding issue made its way through the Legislature and County Council.

Crockett said he wished the legislators would "mean what they say and say what they mean," while Councilman Jim Bradley said he was never privy to any discussions locking the council into funding the stadium.

"A wink and a nod really does lack transparency," Bradley said. "Whether the wink and the nod was real or not, we understood it."

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com