Salt Lake County leaders are licking their wounds after 45 brutal days on Capitol Hill.

The financial damage inflicted on the county is in the millions.

The worst hit came in February after lawmakers diverted $35 million of the county's hotel-room tax dollars and gave it to Real Salt Lake to build a stadium in Sandy, just days after the county refused to give the team the money.

County leaders had opted to stay out of the stadium financing game, as Mayor Peter Corroon insisted the move was an "unsafe investment" and a gamble of taxpayer dollars. But then the Legislature passed HB38 and diverted a portion of the county's hotel-tax dollars to pay for the suburban stadium.

"They've used us unfairly as a tool or a pawn to achieve their ends," Councilman Jim Bradley said.

The county will also lose approximately $850,000 a year in road funds because of HB383. That bill redistributed the funding formula for county and city roads and essentially takes the $850,000 from Salt Lake County and gives it to smaller cities and counties.

And a tax reform plan that takes food sales out of the tax base of the so-called "boutique" sales taxes will result in a $1.8 million loss from the county's Zoo, Arts and Parks program. County leaders support the tax reform plan but wanted the Legislature to maintain current ZAP program funding levels.

The $1.8 million hit could, at worst, cause the county to not build a planned recreational facility, Corroon said. It's either that or "change the scope" on some of the $65 million worth of planned recreation facilities voters paved the way for in November.

Salt Lake County "certainly had a rougher year than they had in years past," said Lincoln Shurtz, legislative analyst for the Utah League of Cities and Towns.

It could have been worse.

The county dodged several threats that ran the gamut. One was to eliminate the county's form of government and reduce the nine-member county council to a five-member body, according to county sources.

Other threats included everything from the state taking control of Oxbow Jail to taking away the county's quarter-cent option sales tax.

County Councilman Randy Horiuchi said most of the threats came before the state stepped in to fund the soccer stadium. "A lot of the things they intended on doing to us, they withheld.

"I think that we probably ended up a lot better than I had anticipated," Horiuchi said. "We survived."

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Millions lost:

Salt Lake County will lose:

• $35 million in hotel-room taxes.

• $1.8 million from the Zoo, Arts and Parks program.

• $850,000 a year in road funds to smaller cities and counties.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com