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Even with West Jordan offering some concessions, Salt Lake County officials Tuesday stood solidly against the city's plans to attract a Facebook data center with major tax incentives.
The County Council voted 9-0 to instruct its fiscal manager, Dave Delquadro, to vote no when he represents the council at next Monday's meeting of a taxing committee that will decide whether to support West Jordan's proposal to create an Economic Development Project Area (EDA) on 232 acres near State Route 111 and New Bingham Highway.
Casting the other county vote will be Mayor Ben McAdams, who told council members Tuesday, "My concerns are stronger than they were last week. I have serious concerns about this incentive and the benefit, or lack thereof, the state would receive."
He ticked off a list of objections, from the volume of its water and electrical demands to an incentive package that could be worth up to $260 million to the company, to West Jordan's desire for an EDA, which gives the county far less say over the economic development business plan than does a more conventional Community Development Area (CDA).
Expressing doubt a Facebook data center will lure more companies offering high-paying jobs, McAdams said, "We can do better as a community. We wouldn't have to try hard to do better than the offer on the table."
West Jordan officials tried to convince the County Council otherwise.
Mayor Kim Rolfe outlined several concessions the city was willing to make — reducing the EDA from 1,700 acres to 232 acres and putting a cap on the amount of new property tax revenues rebated to the company, but he complained that county officials kept wanting more.
"Every time we answer one question, a new concern comes up," he said, contending that the county also has inflated the incentive, up from the city's projected $185 million property-tax break. "It gets a little bit frustrating."
After McAdams had said the incentive package would set a "bad precedent" for future economic-development negotiations, West Jordan City Councilman Dirk Burton said it would be a worse precedent to back out of the deal at this late stage of talks.
"What will others think if we work that long with them and then pull the rug out from underneath them?" Burton asked rhetorically. "That's not a good thing for Utah, or the county or West Jordan."
Before reaching their decision, council members heard objections to the plan from the Utah Taxpayers Association and the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), as well as nuts-and-bolts financial figures from Zions Bank, which is advising the city on the project, and Kevin Jacobs, the county assessor.
McAdams' office also brought in former journalist John Harrington as a "data center expert" to talk about the costs of facilities elsewhere and their impact on jobs and economic growth.
In the end, objections to the proposed pact were so unanimous among council members that Democrat Jenny Wilson marveled, "I never thought I'd align with the Taxpayers Association and AFP. That day is here."
— Matthew Piper contributed to this article