Stakes are big for Utah cities at the Capitol

Article Last Updated: 1/16/2006 01:11 AM

Money and power: Proposed laws would have major impacts on the state's municipalities
By Jacob Santini
The Salt Lake Tribune


Utah cities could lose their ability to block development with zoning. They could get new methods to lure business. A handful might lose millions in sales-tax dollars and one just might get help in building a soccer stadium.

Those are the big possibilities for Utah's 242 municipalities as lawmakers head into their 45-day session today.

Overall, "it's going to be a good year," predicted Mike Jerman, the vice president of the business-backed Utah Taxpayers Association.

Land use

A bill said to be in the works - it's unpublished and remains protected - would put the onus on city leaders, if they want to block a development, to prove that a project would damage the "health, safety and welfare" of their community.

"It will have a change in presumption," said Lincoln Shurtz, a legislative analyst for the Utah League of Cities and Towns, which represents Utah cities at the Legislature.

If passed as it has been described, the measure would give developers "unfettered right to develop" unless the city can prove otherwise, Shurtz said

Redevelopment agencies

A rewrite that began during last year's session - it culminated with a yearlong moratorium on new redevelopment agencies (RDAs) - should wrap up this year.

The plan is promoted by Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo. It splits RDAs into three categories, each with its own purpose and tools:

* Economic development would be used for job-creating projects.

* RDAs would aim to help cities remove blighted area by tapping property taxes, including those destined for other agencies. The measure would restrict what is considered blight and would give other taxing agencies, such as schools and counties, more power to block the designation.

* Community development is a new concept. It would allow cities to spend their own property and sales taxes to facilitate a project. It also would allow other taxing agencies to "opt in" to a project, voluntarily giving up property taxes.

Utah's RDA statute was originally created to help cities revive run-down neighborhoods as well as those areas that developers couldn't bring to life without financial assistance. Cities spurred development by bonding against future property taxes and traditionally used that money to build infrastructure, such as roads and utilities.

Real Salt Lake

Major League Soccer's fledgling Utah franchise is planning to build a 25,000-seat stadium in Sandy. The team played its inaugural season at the University of Utah and announced it will be building the soccer facility at the northwest side of 9400 South and State Street last year.

What team officials haven't said is how they plan to fund it.

"Either they don't know or they are keeping a very tight lid on it," Jerman said.

Team owner Dave Checketts has said the project - initial estimates put the price tag at $65 million - would be a public-private partnership, but details of how that partnership would work are still being hammered out. The public was well-represented when Checketts announced the site in October. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., House Speaker Greg Curtis, Senate President John Valentine, Bramble, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan all spoke at the event.

Hold harmless

Utah lawmakers may phase out a 22-year-old statute that allows some high-sales-tax cities to retain funds that others are forced to share.

Prior to 1983, cities received 100 percent of the three-quarters-of-1 percent of sales taxes collected within their borders. Legislation that year bumped the city sales-tax rate to 1 percent, but split the distribution, giving 50 percent of the money for "point of sale" and 50 percent of the money based on population.

Big losers in that equation got a hold-harmless provision that said the funding would not drop below the pre-1983 rate.

Sen. Greg Bell, R-Farmington, is planning legislation that will phase out hold harmless over the next seven years - a proposal that would force about 10 cities to take a financial hit. For example, South Salt Lake and its 22,000 residents would lose about $1.8 million.

Form of government

Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, is sponsoring a bill that would require first- and second-class cities (any community with more than 65,000 residents) to have a city manager as its chief executive officer. In some cities, the mayor holds that position. First-class counties (only Salt Lake County) also would be forced to have a county manager.

That would mean Salt Lake City, Provo, Sandy and Ogden would all have to change their forms of government.

In a council-manager form, the city manager is responsible for day-to-day operations, including hiring of staff. The mayor is a voting member of the city council.

Coincidentally, second-class city West Jordan already has a council-manager government. There is a resident movement there to change that with a citywide election to make the mayor a full-time position.

jsantini@sltrib.com