Members of the Legislature's Sports Oversight Committee balked at approving a stopgap measure to help ensure taxpayer spending on Olympic facilities doesn't exceed $59 million.
Tuesday, the committee set aside a proposed resolution that would have required the Utah Sports Authority to get permission from both the governor and lawmakers before spending more.Instead, the committee voted to ask the Sports Authority to come up with its own plan to enforce the $59 million budget limit, which is based on the amount the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee has agreed to reimburse taxpayers from Olympic revenues.
The Sports Authority is the state agency overseeing construction of a taxpayer-funded bob sled and luge run near Park City and other Olympic facilities.
Sports Authority Chairman Randy Dryer said the resolution wouldn't be legally binding. Dryer said it also wasn't necessary, since Sports Authority members already have voted to cap spending at $59 million.
But some lawmakers are concerned because there is no law preventing the Sports Authority from raising the self-imposed cap.
Especially since the amount being collected by the Sports Authority continues to increase. The total from the share of sales taxes being set aside for the Olympics over 10 years could reach as much as $70 million.
Sen. Alarik Myrin, R-Altamont, acknowledged some lawmakers fear that if Salt Lake City is awarded the 2002 Winter Games next June, the Sports Authority would be pressured to boost spending before the Legislature could act.
Myrin, co-chairman of the Sports Oversight Committee, said lawmakers will reach an understanding with the Sports Authority, "so we don't get any surprises."
The committee, which includes representatives of local government as well as lawmakers, agreed at its last meeting not to propose any Olympic-related legislation next session.
Members had been warned by bid committee president Tom Welch that controversy during the session that begins in January could hurt the chances of Salt Lake City being selected to host the 2002 Winter Games.
Several Sports Oversight Committee members were concerned about the public's perception of their going along with Welch's request. Rep. Kurt Oscarson, D-Sandy, said he feared they appeared to be "under the bid committee's arm."
But Jack DeMann, a former legislator now a Murray official, proposed turning the issue over to the Sports Authority because he didn't want the International Olympic Committee to get the wrong idea.
DeMann said he didn't want the IOC, which selects the site of the Olympics, to think "there's concerns, that we're back pedaling, that there's anything less than full support for the Olympics."