By Cathy McKitrick, The Salt Lake Tribune, Published: November 26, 2011 04:43PM

• A potential $375 billion could come from taxing Wall Street transactions, corporations and millionaires. Since 2001, the United States has borrowed almost $1 trillion to provide tax breaks to the rich, and the report recommends reversing those Bush-era tax cuts as “the first step in any program to reduce deficits and raise revenue.”

• Defense cuts, yielding $252 billion, include ending the war in Afghanistan, exiting Iraq, reducing the nuclear warhead arsenal, closing one-third of U.S. bases in Europe and Asia and other cutbacks.

• $197 billion could come from taxes on carbon emissions, air and water pollution, along with the elimination of subsidies for fossil fuels, ethanol, clean coal, nuclear power and projects that harm the environment.

Reaction in Republican-dominated Utah seemed to mirror the divide paralyzing Congress.

Jeff Thredgold, an economist who serves as a consultant to Zions Bank in Salt Lake City, said “it sounds like a wish list written by liberal Democrats. You wouldn’t find a single Republican who would agree with that.”

Bob Springmeyer, a former Democratic candidate for governor and president of Salt Lake City-based Bonneville Research, spoke for others when he said he believes that some of the proposals have merit, although he added that “some will probably be impossible to do.”

 

 

If all goes as planned, excavation will begin this week for construction of Layton’s first apartment complex east of Interstate 15 in the past 12 years.

So says Kaysville-based developer Gardner Crane, who has been a partial owner of the 5-acre East Layton parcel near Church Street and Highway 193 for the past seven years. Well-positioned near Hill Air Force Base, schools, shopping and restaurants, Crane is optimistic about the $10 million project’s viability.

“We always planned to do high-end apartments,” Crane said, “but the market hasn’t justified it until this new economy arrived.”

Teaming with Michael Schultz, owner of Roy-based Castle Creek Homes, Crane is eager to get started on the eight-building project that will take about 18 months to complete.

“We have a broad target market,” Crane said, “of empty-nesters, single parents, newlyweds and young professionals,” anyone but a large traditional family that needs more than three bedrooms.

Today’s ailing economy and tightened credit climate have made it increasingly difficult for people to obtain home mortgage loans, thus increasing demand for attractive rental housing.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, foreclosure rates have slowed but new single-family home sales have remained consistently low since the first of the year. And existing home sales have continued to decline.

Bob Springmeyer is president of Bonneville Research, a Salt Lake City-based consulting firm. From January to July, Davis County issued 797 housing permits, Springmeyer said; 405 of them for multifamily units.

Of that number, 333 of the multifamily projects were in Farmington and five in Layton.

“Davis County is a jewel that is waiting to be developed,” Springmeyer said. “I’ve always thought there was extraordinary opportunity for commercial, entrepreneurial and flex space there.”

For years, many of the county’s residents have commuted to neighboring Weber or Salt Lake counties to work. But that scenario is beginning to change.

For example, Clearfield is home to the new 600,000-square-foot ATK facility that will build composite aircraft parts and over several years add up to 800 new jobs.

“Since January, Davis County has added 5,713 jobs to our labor force,” said Kent Sulser, Davis County’s community and economic development director.

The county’s unemployment rate hovers around 7 percent, about two percentage points below the national average. And Sulser attributes Davis’ favorable position to balanced land use and valuable public-private partnerships.

“We have worked diligently and closely with local communities to promote and preserve land sites for future developments,” Sulser said.

As a result, thousands of Davis County acres have been rezoned, Sulser said, and five large mixed-use projects are under construction: Falcon Hill, East Gate, Farmington Station, Park Lane Commons and Legacy Crossing.

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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is climbing out of the economic doldrums, with state revenues increasing nearly seven percent in fiscal year 2010-11, which ended June 30.

Data from the Utah State Tax Commission analyzed by Salt Lake-based Bonneville Research in its "Utah Economic Snapshot" showed that total state and local (on- property tax and fee revenues rose 6.7 percent or $410 million.

In addition, taxable retail sales jumped up $191 million or 13.6 percent, with individual income taxes increasing $121 million or 75.3 percent.

While the figures do offer an improvement, it only tells part of the story, said Bonneville Research President Bob Springmeyer.

"It tells us the economy is growing," he said. "We're climbing out of the trough. But … we're probably down from where we were in 2007 and 2008."

With just a few exceptions, most state and local tax categories saw revenue increases, including individual income taxes — 75 percent or $121.2 million and cigarette taxes — up 132.7 percent or $56.9 million.

The total general revenue increase for the period was 16.4 percent or $269.7 million.

One of the top revenue generators over the past decade was the sale of adult beverages, the data show. Between 2000 and 2009, alcohol sales jumped a dramatic 94 percent, while the state's overall population grew just 25 percent.

Springmeyer said the increase was likely due to a combination of increased consumption along with the growing number of conventions, large-scale events like the Sundance Film Festival as well as increasing tourism consumption.

The data showed that last year, beer, wine and liquor sales contributed $27.9 million to the state's school lunch program and paid $14.8 million in sales taxes. State liquor store No. 15 in Cottonwood Heights recorded $16 million in 2010 sales with a net profit of $4.6 million, while store No. 36 on Swede Alley in Park City had $1.3 million in 2010 sales with a net profit of $200,000.

The average net profit from a state liquor store in 2010 was $1.75 million.

"They are moneymakers," Springmeyer said. "You've got some stores that (have sales in the $1,500 per square range)."

"That's the range you would find at Tiffany's," he commented. "A very, very good grocery store is going to be a third of that."

Overall, Springmeyer said the state's fiscal strength is progressing, albeit slowly.

"The economy is growing. Retail sales are looking better, income from employment is going to be up," he said. "Those are very good signals (that the) the economy is turning around in Utah."

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