SALT LAKE CITY — First the Utah Restaurant Association proposed a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax on all purchases. Then, they backed doing away with any such tax.

The bill was defeated Thursday, Feb. 11 in a nine to six vote of the legislative Revenue & Taxation Committee. The two Davis County members, Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, and Julie Fisher, R-Fruit Heights, both voted against the bill.

That action brought a heavy sigh of relief from Davis County officials.

It would’ve meant the end to $2.8 million in funding, except for $1.8 million ongoing bonds paying off various facilities – until they’re paid off, said County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings. That bonding is funding the Conference Center and its expansion, the South Davis Recreation Center ice sheet, and supporting the Davis Cultural Arts Center.

The other million, which would have been cut sooner, includes $600,000 for operation of the Legacy Events Center and $400,000 for the Conference Center.

“That’s about what we’re taking in,” he said, speaking of the current 1 percent tax on restaurant meals. “We’re not going to shut down the Conference Center.

“The county would have to raise property taxes, and we couldn’t refinance (on debt), leave the amounts in until they’re paid off (at current interest rates),” he said.

“We were really concerned about it. This was a really big deal,” the clerk/auditor emphasized. All three county commissioners were in attendance in a packed conference room for the vote.

“I think what we’ve invested, and how we’ve invested (on above-mentioned facilities plus Convention & Visitors Bureau),” is following the law, County Commissioner Louenda Downs said.

“It is pretty vital to know and understand that this is money that has been invested, and the return on that investment has been substantial,” she said.

Job growth, statewide, as a result of such efforts has reached 30,000 positions, a just-completed report indicates, said County Commission Chair John Petroff.

“The job growth has been phenomenal,” Downs said. “This has been a feather in our cap to bring people to grow tourism and grow the economy in a way that has been, we think, very beneficial.”

While those pushing for tax elimination reportedly voiced support for no taxes of any kind, the commissioner said “we have to be careful. Taxes, in the beginning, when the Founding Fathers created our government, it was to grow the economy, grow jobs, grow the country – not to grow government.

“We’ve tried to invest in the usage of that money, to grow tourism, jobs in the economy. To pull that back doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.”

“This TRCC (Tourism, Recreation, Cultural & Convention) tax works,” said Davis County Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO Barbara Riddle. “It provides that tax revenue for the county to do some great quality of life and tourism promotion that benefits the entire county. It is an investment tax, not just a pure tax.”

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com