State lawmakers are looking to unlock millions of Salt Lake County tax dollars for the next major piece of Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith’s downtown sports, entertainment, culture and convention district.
SB306, sponsored by Sen. Daniel McCay, R-Riverton, would allow the county to use money collected from an account called the “fourth quarter transportation fund” for a portion of the Salt Palace Convention Center’s planned billion-dollar renovation. The fund is fueled by a quarter-of-a-percentage-point sales tax, which contributes a fraction of its revenue to the stash of cash.
Salt Lake City and the Utah Transit Authority split the remainder of the revenue collected by the sales tax.
The county’s portion of the fund is typically reserved for transportation projects and paying off debt from such efforts. But roads within the county, Mayor Jenny Wilson said in an interview last fall, are now more likely to be federal highways, state roads or city roads — so the need for the county to fund transportation initiatives is diminishing.
Last year, the county’s allocation of the “fourth quarter” fund totaled $19.4 million. Nearly $9 million went toward programs like the county’s TRAX ambassador program and sidewalk construction in Millcreek.
The County Council voted 7-2 in November to set aside the remaining $10.5 million in hopes legislators would free up the revenue this session. If SB306, which is awaiting Senate action, is signed into law, the county plans to use about half its annual “fourth quarter” revenue allocation for the Salt Palace project.
“We have an existing revenue stream that supports transportation, and [we’re] taking half of that revenue stream and diverting it over to the expense of renovating the Salt Palace,” Wilson said in a Wednesday interview. “What I’m really trying to do is avoid any additional tax on the public as we renovate the Salt Palace.”
With a billion-dollar price tag on the potential renovations — which would include a second ballroom, additional east-west connections near the facility and other beautification efforts nearby — the $10.5 million infusion would be just the first step to pay for the county-owned convention center’s face-lift.
“We know that construction costs are high,” Wilson said. “They’ve gone up, and we will need to figure out how to refresh our Salt Palace. So this is one piece of what it will take.”
