| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
S.L. County vows to fight SLOC
Dispute is over $230,000 in property taxes
By Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret News staff writer
Saying they won't be bullied or bedazzled by politics and pomp, Salt Lake County officials said Tuesday that they'd see the Salt Lake Organizing Committee in court over taxes owed.
A 6-2 vote of the county's Board of Equalization came after a closed-door meeting where members discussed the possibility of a long court battle with the very popular entity.
At issue is $230,000 in revenue the county says it is owed from 2001 on personal property SLOC used that year for furnishings at apartments and for some downtown property office equipment.
Olympic organizers appealed the county's ruling to the Utah State Tax Commission, which early this month agreed with SLOC.
The next step is for the county to appeal that decision through the commission with a hearing and ultimately to 3rd District Court if the commission stands by its ruling.
"They made no effort to put on any evidence or an appeal of law beyond a parade of politicians with Mitt Romney's impassioned plea and the not-so-thinly-veiled threat by Lane Beattie," board member Russell Skousen said.
When the SLOC tax argument was at its peak in Salt Lake County, Olympic organizers and supporters flooded the board's meeting with assertions the Winter Games constituted a "charitable" mission and therefore should be exempt from paying taxes. Under state law, private owners of real and personal property have the burden to prove their primary function and use of the property is charitable or religious in nature.
Romney did make an appearance before the board, and Beattie intimated it would be political folly and financially risky for the county to butt heads with SLOC over the tax break.
The debate went on in all four counties where SLOC was operating venues, including Weber, Summit and Utah counties.
On Tuesday, the Salt Lake County board, which sits as the nine-member County Council, said the other counties had buckled under political pressure in the face of a decision that could prove unpopular.
"Why, when we make a parsonage jump through a gazillion hoops, shouldn't SLOC have to meet the same burden for what they furnish for the poobahs that come in from abroad to stay?" board member Joe Hatch said. "In our wisdom, they didn't present any evidence on that. It was just nonsense, they were playing violins."
Hatch was particularly irritated with Summit County's officials, who he said "ranted and raved" in the press and then "caved" at the end.
Summit County, like Salt Lake County, had the option of dipping into some substantial tax revenue off real property SLOC owns. In the end, both counties forked over that change, with Summit agreeing to forfeit $773,000 in taxes from Utah Olympic Park and Salt Lake County relinquishing more than $1 million from the Kearns speedskating oval.
Both reasoned the venue sites were charitable because the property's ownership will be assumed by a nonprofit athletic foundation and the Olympic competitions themselves were charitable in nature because of the ticket giveaways and the overall "gift" to the community.
But Salt Lake County decided to split the difference and argued it couldn't exempt the personal property. Summit County granted both exemptions, Weber County decided to exempt a minor amount of personal property from the Snowbasin site and Utah County also fought the personal property exemption last fall. In a 2-1 ruling there, commissioners decide to tax SLOC on simple collection of folding chairs.
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com
|
|
February 27, 2002
|
