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35 |
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10 |
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11 |
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| NED |
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Pay up, SLOC, Salt Lake County says
Council vows court battle on Oly tax issue
By Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret News staff writer
Salt Lake County officials on Tuesday reiterated their intent to take the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to court for taxes they say are owed on personal property.
Members of the county's Board of Equalization, which doubles as the County Council, met with SLOC representatives in a tense session filled with accusations of political threats and flawed legal arguments.
In the end, a 4-3 vote by the board had Salt Lake County unwilling to budge from its fight to make SLOC pay $233,000 on property from tax years 2000 and 2001.
"If the property is clearly tax-exempt, it shouldn't have been difficult to present evidence to prove that," board member Russell Skousen said.
Instead, Skousen, an attorney, was joined by Joe Hatch, another attorney on the board, in insisting that SLOC failed to make a legal argument demonstrating why it qualifies for a charitable exemption and taxes should be waived.
"I am insulted you did not give us the courtesy of presenting evidence such as this is how we are using our computers," Hatch said. "I just want to make sure that anyone in the future who appears before this board knows there is a standard for tax-exempt status. In good faith, I do not think you have done that."
SLOC representatives, however, disagreed, pointing to a February ruling by the State Tax Commission that overturned the county's decision on the tax issue.
"Respectfully, we did put on that evidence and we won," said Brian Katz, SLOC's senior attorney. "We went to the commission and proved it."
Salt Lake County was one of four across the Wasatch Front wrangling with the issue of tax-exempt status for the organization that put on the 2002 Winter Games. Summit and Weber counties granted exemptions, while Utah County levied personal property taxes on a few folding chairs.
Salt Lake County compromised.
It did agree with SLOC the Games' nature was "charitable" and relieved a government burden, saying the bulk of its tax liability on real property such as the Kearns speed skating oval would be waived.
Although that meant the county forfeited more than a million dollars in revenue, the county wasn't convinced the furnishings at two apartments used by out-of-town SLOC employees constituted "charity." It also said taxes were owed on downtown office equipment.
SLOC appealed the decision before the State Tax Commission, which sided with SLOC.
Skousen called the ruling "flawed."
"It switched the presumption from the taxpayer to the government," he said, forcing the county to prove its case and be on the defensive.
"The commission turned the standard on its head based on arguments that were political, not based on tax law," Skousen said. "It undermines the whole process when a number of proponents say it would not set well for Salt Lake County if we persist. I may not know a lot, but that is not a legal argument."
SLOC also argued its announcement last week of donating $4 million in property to charity should sway the county to reverse its decision.
It didn't. For Hatch and others, how the property was used — not what happened to it afterward — is their interpretation of the legal standard.
The county agreed to reconsider the SLOC decision at the request of one its board members, Winston Wilkinson, who favors tax-exempt status.
"It's pretty upsetting," Wilkinson said Wednesday. "Especially after they made that donation to needy people in the county."
Wilkinson and colleague Steve Harmsen were absent for the vote, but the result still would have been a defeat for SLOC. Harmsen said Wednesday he would have argued to tax.
E-MAIL: amyjoi@desnews.com
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April 10, 2002
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