I was going through the new laws that are now in effect for the State and something caught my eye a bit:
https://www.ksl.com/article/51425182/heres-25-new-utah-laws-that-went-into-effect-on-jan-1
Quote:
SALT LAKE CITY — It's a new year, which means another fresh round of state laws is about to take effect.
Although the legislative session ends in March, most new laws take effect in May, 60 days after the final day of lawmaking. Laws dealing with government funding typically take effect in July at the beginning of each new fiscal year, while others must wait until the new year.
Twenty-five such laws take effect to ring in 2026.
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Quote:
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SB333 lets cities and counties opt into a "major sporting event venue zone" to help fund venues and infrastructure for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games.
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https://www.ksl.com/article/51263772/uta...mpic-upgrade-funding-clear-first-hurdles
Quote:
Olympic venue funding
Meanwhile, cities and counties might have a new way to fund improvements to a handful of sports venues through SB333. The bill seeks to make sure that the state's sports venues — particularly Olympic venues — continue to produce "maximum revenue for the state," said Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, the bill's sponsor.
The bill would allow cities and counties to opt into a "major sporting event venue zone" for "a site, arena, or facility along with supporting or adjacent structures" that has been proposed to be used by the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. If they choose to create a zone, they can apply to the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity for final approval.
Zones could collect up to 75% of the property tax increment collected and 100% of local sales and use tax over 25-40 years to cover the cost of projects. Summit County would be allowed to impose a resort communities sales and use tax under the bill.
"This tool helps create a targeted funding source for those improvements," Stevenson said. "This uses local tax dollars at the option of the local government ... to facilitate these improvements. There's no local preemption in this bill."
He told reporters on Tuesday that it wasn't about "football, baseball, hockey (or) basketball" but "infrastructure that services those facilities" like water lines, sewer systems or even low-income housing projects that could be used by Olympians. The committee unveiled 13 venues it planned to use in 2034 last year, but lawmakers said it could help with new facilities.
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With the call out for Infrastructure rather than the facilities, I do wonder if this new law from SB333 can be utilized for Transit as well. The comment from Stevenson was vague in that it doesn't preclude the use of this zone for transit options.
Being that The RGP is nearby the Delta Center, and the Delta Center will be hosting events, would the RGP qualify as an infrastructure project under this bill? Also, would the planned Orange Line/Tech Link also quality as it would link multiple areas together such as Rice Eccles, the Delta Center, and the Airport.
With the current plan for the RGP, it would be mostly self-supporting on a 30 year time frame. With the bill allowing a 40 year time frame for tax collection, this would more than cover the cost of the project.
Making 2 zones, 1 for the RGP redevelopment area and the other in Research Park, both the Tech-Link and RGP projects could be funded this way and not require any tax increase nor waiting for funding.
Not only could this fund the RGP, but it could fund some additional housing in the RGP area that would be used for an Athlete Village before becoming Mixed income housing with the lower income portion covered by the zone itself.
I honestly think that even though Transit wasn't mentioned by Stevenson, this is something that should be investigated by Salt Lake City as a way to build the RGP and Tech-Link Trax expansion and have it completed before the Olympics.
I have sent off my email to my City Council rep (Victoria Petro-Eschler) and encourage everyone else that can to contact their City Council rep to see if we can get this moving.
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