Skaters practice at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns on Friday, April 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
With less than two weeks left in the Utah legislative session, the Senate unveiled a long bill that would set a funding structure for major sporting event venues.
While the sponsor of SB333, executive appropriations chair and Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, won’t call by name the major event his proposal addresses, he told reporters it’s scheduled to happen in 2034 — meaning it’s the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
SB333 is still a work in progress, but some things are highly likely. The bill isn’t expected to have anything to do with stadiums meant to host football, baseball, hockey or basketball games, but will create new special districts to house infrastructure dedicated to the games.
As it’s written now, the legislation would establish a process for cities or counties to create “major sporting event venue zones,” so they can capture property and sales tax increments within the districts for at least 25 years, but no more than 40 years.
“I ran quite a bit of legislation this year on the public infrastructure districts. This is another one that ties into that and helps fund the basics,” Stevenson told reporters on Tuesday, referring to bills he has sponsored setting guidelines for special districts including the Utah Inland Port shipping hub and Point of the Mountain development.
All of those have access to funds through a public infrastructure district, he said, as they coordinate with some private developers for special projects.
“(Public Infrastructure Districts) have become a very good way to finance public infrastructure,” Stevenson said. “It usually goes in cooperation with the community, because when you put these facilities in, they’ve got to be hooked up to something, like a water system or a sewer system on the other end, so it’s been proved to be a very good process.”
Under SB333, a proposed “major sporting event venue” would be an Olympic Games site, arena, golf course, playing field, stadium or facility with construction or renovation costs exceeding $100 million.
With the bill, beginning on Jan. 1, 2026, a county council with a “major sporting event venue zone” may levy different taxes to fund the construction of sporting event venues, or the demolition, upgrade or expansion of an aging venue, according to the bill.
Those include an energy sales and use tax, as well as a telecommunications license tax. With the county’s approval, there could also be a maximum accommodations services tax of 15% for hotel rooms within the district.
When asked whether taxpayers would foot the bill for some of these stadiums and venues, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said that a tax increment would only happen in the district if a project gets invested in and built.
“If you didn’t have the increment, that facility may not be built, so that tax revenue wouldn’t have been there. Then usually the increment gets captured for a period of time, 15, 20, 25 years,” Adams said. “But then after that 25 years, that facility is there, cranking out tax revenue that wouldn’t have existed.”
Projects that could be financed
The taxes could help pay for bonds financing the construction or remodeling of sports facilities or the infrastructure that supports new sports buildings, Stevenson said. That could also include housing for Olympians.
The bill may undergo some changes before it’s officially discussed. But it is expected to be prioritized this session, since “there’s a lot of things we have to have done pre-‘athletic event of 2034,’” Stevenson said.
With the proposal, the state requires municipalities that create “major sporting event venue zones” to pursue plans for increased use of public transportation to the venues, improved parking, better commercial developments, improving air quality by reducing car trips, increasing tourism activity and developing affordable housing near the sports facilities.
The municipalities should include plans demonstrating to achieve those sustainability goals in their application to create the district.
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