West Bountiful to recount RAP-tax vote
Measure lost by 1 vote after tally of provisional ballots
Voters approved the RAP tax (for recreation, arts and parks) in Bountiful and Centerville on Nov. 6, but they turned it down by seven votes in West Bountiful. After provisional and absentee ballots were counted in West Bountiful, the defeat came by the slimmest of margins: one vote.
There were 721 votes against the RAP tax and 720 for it.
"The moral there is don't think your vote doesn't count," said Mayor James Behunin, who had endorsed the tax.
With an election as close as this one, the West Bountiful City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to recount its residents' votes.
The recount will cost the city $700, Behunin said. "That's not too much to feel that it was done right," he added.
West Bountiful city recorder Bev Haslam said she expected to have final recount results Monday or Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Centerville and Bountiful, most of the revenue generated from the RAP tax over the next eight years will be put toward the construction of the South Davis Performing Arts Center.
He said he doesn't think the tax's defeat in West Bountiful and Woods Cross, where the tax lost by 40 votes, will have a negative effect on the project.
"It would be wonderful to have them as partners, but the voters make that choice," he said.
The RAP tax could make a comeback in West Bountiful and Woods Cross in 2008, Russell said.
"Their citizens (who shop in Bountiful and Centerville) will still pay the RAP tax," he said.
The $14.2 million center is expected to become the new home of the Rodgers Memorial Theatre, currently residing in a strip mall on Pages Lane. The new center is projected to include a 500-seat main theater and a 150- to 200-seat black box theater, recital halls and recording space.
The Centerville Redevelopment Agency can provide $6 million worth of real estate for the center, and Russell said he plans to apply for some of the revenue Davis County collects from a hotel-room tax that is used to promote tourism in Davis County.
Russell said the center also needs private donations to the tune of about $2 million, which could result in naming rights for the donors. A couple private foundations are interested in the project, Russell said.
When Bountiful and Centerville begin imposing the RAP tax in April 2008, the tax is expected to raise $326,800 in Bountiful and $335,000 in Centerville during the first year.
By the end of 2015 — the tax's eighth and final year unless reapproved by voters — the tax is expected to raise $2.85 million in Bountiful and $3.87 million in Centerville.
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com
