August 1, 2003

To: All Members in Davis County and Layton City

Re: Proposed Davis County Tax Increase and Davis Conference Center

Davis County Tax Increase

Davis County will be conducting a Truth-in-Taxation hearing Tuesday, August 5th, at 6:00 p.m. at the Davis County Courthouse, 28 East State Street, Room 230, Farmington. This tax increase was approved by county commissioners last December and is a 24% increase over the certified tax rate. Including new growth, county property tax revenues will increase 29% from the previous year.

Last year, Davis County announced plans to build a conference center in Layton. Private investors are intending to build a hotel adjacent to the conference center. County officials claimed that a feasibility study demonstrated that existing tax revenues would be sufficient to build and operate the conference center and that no additional taxpayer support would be required.

Proponents of the conference center are now backtracking and are claiming that additional tax hikes and taxpayer subsidies are needed to make the center financially viable. Layton City officials are proposing that a city-wide 1% tax be imposed on hotels. Layton officials also want taxpayers to fork over several hundred thousand dollars to cover infrastructure costs. Total bill to taxpayers is $1 million.

The Utah Taxpayers Association has several concerns:

1. If this project is financially viable, why is the private sector only interested in building and operating the hotel but not the conference center?

2. If the county’s feasibility study concluded that the conference center does not require additional taxpayer support, why are Layton City officials insisting that additional taxpayer subsidies are needed?

3. Why are local governments getting into activities normally reserved for the private sector? When government uses taxes dollars to compete against the private sector, the tax base is reduced as taxpaying private entities are driven out by tax-consuming government entities.