Centerville leaders voice concern over conference center expansion

Centerville City officials have come out against a plan by Davis County to use tourist tax dollars to fund a $13.2 million expansion of the county's conference center.

In June, Davis County officials voted to raise the county's hotel-room tax by 1.25 percent. That would bring in about $240,000 a year, which would be used to pay off $10 million in sales-tax revenue bonds expected to be issued this month to expand the conference center.

"We're concerned that may not be the best way to go about with economic development in Davis County," said Centerville Mayor Ron Russell in an interview Wednesday. "I guess part of the point is we want to make sure that we are looking at all of the options, not just focusing in on that single option as the best way to approach economic development."

The mayor and Centerville's five council members signed a letter Tuesday voicing their opposition to the plan. Concerns outlined in the letter include a belief that the "economics of the Davis Conference Center would go from bad to worse" with expansion.

They cited a 2005 Forbes magazine article that reported large conferences are less relevant than they used to be. The letter also said that "expansion of the Conference Center would be a long-term financial burden on taxpayers."

Davis commissioners disputed those accusations in a letter they drafted Wednesday in response to the Centerville letter.

"The bulk of the financing for the conference-center expansion and for operations will be paid for with revenue generated from the county's hotel transient room tax," the letter states. "This tax is generated primarily by visitors to Davis County and not the general Davis County populace."

Russell said that county tax dollars might be better used to fund a regional Performing Arts Center in Centerville.

"Frankly, we fail to see how a facility that will primarily be patronized by local residents, spending money that is already here in the county, would result in a greater economic impact than creating a facility that would attract more out of area visitors who would bring new money to hotels, restaurants and shopping in the area," the commissioners wrote.

In response to the Forbes article, the commissioners cited their own feasibility study, completed earlier this year, which showed a "healthy meetings market in our area, with significant potential for increasing our market share."

"According to our feasibility study and the study's author, while conference demand dropped in 2005, it has picked up again in recent months.