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House narrows tourism tax language, limits new fund to parking and traffic impacts
Summary
Lawmakers passed First Substitute HB38 to clarify which counties may impose certain tourism-related local-option taxes and create a restricted transient room tax fund (county-of-first-class) for parking and traffic impacts; an amendment limited the program to $20 million and narrowly defined permitted uses.
First Substitute House Bill 38, introduced on the floor as clarifying amendments to Utah’s tourism-related local-option taxes, passed the House after floor amendments and a vote of 57 yes, 15 no, and 4 absent.
Representative Noble described the bill as clarifying the roles of two tourism taxes (transient room tax and the tourism/recreation/cultural/convention center tax) and specifying that in a county of the first class, 15% of the transient room tax would be deposited into a newly created transient room tax fund restricted to mitigating parking and traffic impacts related to a convention center. The sponsor said the language resolves a prior conflict that had said both "any class" and "only the first class" in different places.
Representative Anderson declared a conflict of interest (produces events at Southtown Expo Center) and explained the practical parking shortages facing event producers and attendees. Representative David Clark offered an amendment that would cap the impact funding at $20,000,000 and direct it to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development; the amendment passed on the floor and was described as "friendly." Several members spoke in favor of targeting funds to parking needs, emphasizing prior legislative history that aimed to support convention and parking facilities.
After discussion and the successful amendment, the House voted to pass the bill as amended; the clerk recorded the result as 57 yes, 15 no, and 4 absent, and the bill will be referred to the Senate for further consideration.
What happens next: The bill would, if enacted and implemented per its language, create a narrowly restricted fund in certain counties to mitigate parking and traffic impacts for convention centers and preserve the remainder of the transient room tax for existing promotion and tourism uses.
