4 Davis cities OK vote on tax for arts center

Residents in four south Davis cities will vote on whether to impose a tenth-of-a-cent sales tax increase to build a South Davis Performing Arts Center.

City councils in Centerville, Bountiful, Woods Cross and West Bountiful unanimously voted Tuesday night to place a measure on November's ballots that would ask residents whether they would be in favor of a RAP (recreation, arts and parks) tax to help fund the center's construction.

The center would include a 500-seat main theater, as well as a 150- to 200-seat black box theater, recital halls and recording space.

It would also mean a new home for the Rodgers Memorial Theatre, which has resided in a strip mall on Pages Lane since 1991. The theater seats 265 people, but there are 3,500 season ticket holders, said Bill Davies, president of the nonprofit South Davis Cultural Arts Corp., which runs the theater.

Centerville's redevelopment agency owns 2.5 acres of land where the performing arts center could be built, near 400 West and 500 North. The city plans to contribute the land and infrastructure, valued at about $6 million, toward the center if voters approve the RAP tax.

A recent feasibility study Centerville commissioned looked favorably upon a new performing arts center and showed that the five south Davis cities could generate $12.1 million over the eight-year tax. It also showed the center would be able to stand on its own financially after two years, said Blaine Lutz, Centerville's finance director.

The following question will be put to voters: Shall the City Council of (name of city), Utah, adopt an ordinance imposing a one-tenth of one percent (0.10%) local sales and use tax to fund a performing arts center and other recreational and cultural facilities and organizations ("RAP tax")?

However, in North Salt Lake, no member of the City Council moved to place the measure on the ballot, and no vote was taken, said Mayor Shanna Shaefermeyer.

Council member Lisa Watts Baskin was concerned about the wording of the ballot question, Conrad Jacobson opposed any new taxes, and Lynn Ballard said he wouldn't vote for it. Council members Matt Hardy and Gene Madsen were absent.

"(The measure) will not be put on the ballot in North Salt Lake," Shaefermeyer said.

That means that, if approved by voters, the measure in the four cities could generate just over $1 million during 2008.