Commission reviews restaurant tax funds

By Sun Advocate

At a regular meeting of the Carbon County Commission last week, the lawmakers reviewed the recommendations of the restaurant tax committee.
The commissioners made several decisions regarding the recommendations from the board.
Five requests for restaurant tax revenues come in front of the committee last week during one of the advisory panel’s quarterly meetings.
The first request was submitted by Price city for $6,000 to help run the annual International Days celebration.
The restaurant tax committee members recommended that the commission approve allocating the money and the county commission granted the city’s International Days funding request.
Next on the list was a second request from Price city for $15,000 to update and install a fire alarm system at the civic auditorium.
The restaurant tax committee denied the request for money to fund the Price Civic Auditorium improvements and the county commission followed the recommendation.
“This looks to be more a maintenance and operations type of situation,” stated Commissioner Mike Milovich. “It’s not truly tourist related, so we won’t fund it.”
Commissioner Steve Burge pointed out that George Har-mond, deputy county attorney, had reviewed Price city’s $15,000 request prior to the county commission meeting.
After comparing Price’s proposal to the parameters established by state law, Harmond determined that the city’s funding request for the fire system at the civic auditorium did not meet the restaurant tax statute.
Another Price proposal that was denied restaurant tax funding involved the city’s request for $15,000 to replace skylights at the swimming pool.
As with the civic auditorium fire system, the county commissioners cited statutory reasons for denying the city’s request for restaurant tax money to subsidize the swimming pool improvements.
Two unrelated requests for restaurant tax funding received different treatment.
First was a request from the Carbon County Travel Bureau for the amount of $25,450. The money is to be used for a promotion project for billboards and flags along the city streets, primarily in connection with the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum.
The county commission decided to schedule a special meeting with the restaurant tax advisory committee members and travel bureau director Kathy Hanna-Smith to look at all of the options for the money.
The final request involved restaurant tax funding to operate and promote the Helper Arts Festival in August.
Event organizers had asked the restaurant tax committee to endorse allocating $15,000 to fund the arts festival. But the members of the advisory panel decided to approve only $7,500 for the event.
However, following a discussion between the committee members and the county commissioners, the feeling was that additional money needed to be granted to the festival.
The original arts festival request will be sent back to the tax committee and a special meeting will be conducted to make a second recommendation to the county commission.