With the surplus in the county's Recreation and Culture fund increasing annually, commissioners are debating whether to drop the countywide restaurant tax - the main source of revenue for recreation and culture - from 0.7 percent to 0.65 percent.

"My theory has always been: Just set it to what we need," Commissioner Jerry Grover said. "Looking at the numbers, even with increases in costs, we still should have enough to drop it" by a 0.05 percentage point.

Commissioners didn't act on the tax-rate proposal Tuesday, but will revisit it Sept. 19.

Before then, commissioners will decide whether future budgets can handle the decreased revenue and whether a rate dip is the best choice with cultural and convention proposals on the horizon.

Commissioner Steve White said reducing the recreation surplus is "not a bad thing," but he would like to get a better grip on next year's budget items first.

"When you set a tax rate, it's to meet a budget requirement." White said. "We're working at setting the taxes to meet the needs of the people."

Utah County enacted the restaurant tax in 1992 after state legislation provided for an optional special tax on food and beverages served by eateries.

The tax of up to 1 percent is added to regular sales tax and can be used for tourism, recreation and cultural and convention facilities.

Utah County assessed the full 1 percent for 12 years, then trimmed the rate to 0.9 for 2005 and 0.7 for 2006.

Of counties with the restaurant tax, Utah County is the only one assessing less than the full 1 percent, according to the Utah State Tax Commission. Emery, Millard, Piute and San Juan counties have yet to impose the levy.

Grover's statement to go even lower came as a surprise to other commissioners and county officials Tuesday.

"The feeling has been 0.7 is about as low as we could go," said County Deputy Attorney Kent Sundberg."

"I'm prepared to reduce it even more," Grover said in an interview. "I don't think that happens very often."

Commissioner Larry Ellertson said he wants to take a closer look before reducing the rate to ensure needed funding for potential projects.

Possible suitors for the restaurant-tax revenues include a proposed convention center - sites have been offered in Provo, Thanksgiving Point and Pleasant Grove - a county recreation facility and extensive repairs to the historic County Courthouse.

"We may still be able to do [those things] with the change [in the rate]," Ellertson said.

Through the years, the bulk of restaurant-tax revenues have been earmarked for parks, the county fair, bond payments on the McKay Events Center at Orem's Utah Valley State College and upkeep at the historic courthouse.

thollingshead@sltrib.com

The surplus?

The surplus in Utah County's Recreation and Culture fund has increased for at least the past seven years. Commissioner Jerry Grover argues one reason is that Utah Valley's growing population is eating out more and more, which means more and more restaurant taxes are being collected. Here are the surpluses since 1999:

ä 1999: $2,037,907.

ä 2000: $2,386,087.

ä 2001: $3,245,896.

ä 2002: $3,508,129.

ä 2003: $4,438,426.

ä 2004: $5,726,421.

ä 2005: $7,132,445.