This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The $22.7 million in tax breaks the Larry H. Miller Group will receive from Salt Lake City to renovate Vivint Smart Home Arena — home of the Utah Jazz — is being hailed as an economic development boost for the city.
It's also a gift to a company that has bristled in the past when a potential competitor was in line for proposed tax breaks.
Apparently, it depends on who is standing in line as to whether government subsidies to business groups — or sports arenas — are good or bad.
The city's Redevelopment Agency Board, which doubles as the City Council, voted unanimously last week to approve the tax breaks requested by the Miller Group for its planned $125 million makeover of the basketball arena, which Jazz officials say will make it a world-class NBA facility.
After spending about $15 million on new video screens, the Miller Group plans to pump another $110 million into the 25-year-old building. It will be allowed to recoup about 18 percent of the total cost of the project, thanks to the tax help.
City and Jazz officials call it a win-win because it will raise the value of the property surrounding the arena, which will lead to increased property-tax payments to city coffers.
But the whole tax-incentive idea for economic progress wasn't such a smart idea to Larry H. Miller, the late owner of the business conglomerate bearing his name, when it was proposed for someone else a decade ago.
And it wasn't just any someone else. It was a former business partner.
Dave Checketts, the former Jazz president who had left the organization, owned a professional soccer franchise and wanted to put it in Utah, with several locations vying for the team.
One such location was Salt Lake City. Then-Mayor Rocky Anderson had a plan to put the soccer complex at the Utah State Fairpark on the city's west side.
Anderson wanted to give Checketts $12.5 million in tax incentives and subsidies for the Fairpark soccer venue. But Miller opposed the plan, calling it "ill-conceived" to tap taxpayer dollars to aid a private sports franchise.
That led to a feud between Miller and Anderson, who reminded the City Council of the incentives the Jazz owner had received when he built the Delta Center in 1990, including a $25 million bond to pay for land under the basketball venue and associated improvements.
Miller recoiled at the comparison, saying his business was paying the bond back through tax increments because of the increase in property values the center would bring to the area.
The result: a thriving soccer franchise for Utah and a financial and status lift for Sandy.