A bill broadening the taxation powers and other abilities of the Utah Military Installation and Development Bill now only needs Gov. Cox’s signature before it becomes state law.
Senate Bill 169 — sponsored by Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton and Rep. Orem Rep. Val Peterson, R-Orem — passed in the state Senate on Feb. 26 before being sent to the House Business and Labor Committee, where it received a unanimous vote for a favorable recommendation. See https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/SB0169.html
Along with allowing MIDA’s board to impose an accommodations tax of up to 15% for certain accommodations and services sold within MIDA areas — a tax that doesn’t come with an expiration date — the bill also allows MIDA to make agreements with school districts to let them keep some of their tax-revenue increases that would otherwise go to MIDA.
The bill also exempts MIDA from needing to post physical notices of meetings.
According to MIDA chief legal officer Nicole Cottle, MIDA will still give online notices but some project areas are not in convenient places for the land-use authority to physically post notices.
Senators and representatives who opposed the bill expressed worries about its allowance for MIDA to bypass physical notice requirements and the increased power it gives the land-use authority.
Sen. Heidi Balderree, R-Salt Lake, said it was the lines exempting the physical notices of meetings that lost her votes.
Other representatives worried the bill would empower land-use authorities further, something they see as an overstep from state government.
“MIDA already lacks transparency in many ways, and is emblematic with many of the state land authorities exceeding what they were originally intended,” Brett Garner, D-West Valley City, told The Park Record. “I don’t believe this is a proper role of the state government in the end.”
Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake, expressed worry as to whether groups like MIDA are entirely focused on the public interest.
“I’m concerned with the continued expansion of authorities generally in Utah and the potential for these groups to make significant decisions and spend significant money without proper oversight or accountability,” he said. “It remains an open question whether these bodies are constitutional or not, because they stretch the bounds of separation of powers. There is too great an opportunity for malfeasance or undue influence, and I always think carefully about my votes on entities that have the potential to misuse funds or contribute to personal gain at public expense.”