Team is latest to feed at public trough

It's always nice to have a rich uncle.

And in recent years, that uncle's name is: Utah State Government.

The latest recipient of familial kindness is the Real Salt Lake soccer team.

But millionaire Dave Checketts and his footballers aren't the first, and won't be the last, group to stand before the public trough.

I recall when late on the last night of a bygone Legislature, $1 million or so was found to buy the Heber Creeper Railroad.

Just a few years ago the Legislature and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. stood up and loaned cities in Washington County millions of dollars in flood relief, and now this session southern Utah legislators are asking that the remaining loan be forgiven — a direct donation to that area of the state.

And Uncle USG is certainly seeing some good times.

Between surpluses this year and ongoing revenue growth next year, the state has an extra $1.6 billion — a record surplus.

And with that kind of cash, just about everyone comes calling.

Huntsman, who jumped into the soccer stadium funding issue after Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon turned down Real Salt Lake's financial package, saying it was a bad investment, called on legislators to step up to the money table.

An overnight poll for this newspaper and KSL-TV published Thursday shows that 54 percent of Utahns don't want part of the hotel room tax to pay for the land and a parking garage for the stadium, with 38 percent saying give the soccer team the money.

On Thursday, the Utah House joined with the Senate to provide $35 million in tax revenue for the soccer team. Huntsman is expected to sign the measure today.

Actually, that is not the whole cost. Because the state will bond against the hotel tax revenue to buy the land and build the parking garage now, the ultimate cost will be more like $40 million when debt servicing is added.

But, like asking that rich uncle for some cash, the state is so flush right now that financial dealings that would have been dead on arrival on Capitol Hill several years ago, when the state was pinched for cash, make good financial and political sense in these days of wine and roses.