Requested Agenda Date:
8/23/2022
Requested Agenda Title:
Title
Reallocation of TRT funds for the 2023 NBA All-Star Experience and Community Engagement in Salt Lake County (January/February 2023)
Body
Requested Agenda Item Description: For the past few years, the County Council has allocated Transient Room Tax (TRT) funds for a hospitality program at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). In preparing the 2022 budget, SLCo learned that SLCC had a large amount of unspent funds over the course of the last few years. After discussions with the college, we learned that this program was not reaching its intended goals, and interest/enrollment numbers were very low. The college stated they did not believe the current program was meeting the needs of this population, they did not want SLCo to allocate additional funding, and believe it is best to terminate this program and rethink a new approach. In total, there is $555,000 in unspent funds that SLCC does not believe they can spend and will be returning. TRT funding is highly restricted and can only be used to establish and promote tourism. As such, we are asking the council to consider reallocating $500,000 of these funds for community engagement efforts towards the upcoming 2023 All-Star Game. It is estimated that the 2023 All-Star Game will bring more than $45 million in economic impact to SLCo. These TRT funds would be used for specific outreach efforts in our community and facilities as well as larger engagement efforts by the Utah Jazz.
Requested Action: Discussion - Vote Needed
Presenter(s) (with titles): Kimberly Barnett, Associate Deputy Mayor
Time Needed: 30 MINS
Is this Item Time-Sensitive and/or Requesting a Time-Certain? Yes and I will send the request in writing
Requesting Staff Member: Kimberly Barnett
Are Supporting Documents Needed for this Agenda Item Request? Yes