Well, by a few pennies and nickels at least.

A split Utah County Commission voted Tuesday to lower the county's restaurant tax for 2007 from 0.7 percent to 0.65 percent.

Commissioners have been nibbling away at the restaurant tax for three years. They dropped the levy from 1 percent to 0.9 percent for 2005 and to 0.7 for 2006.

"One of the things I ran on was lowering taxes until you need them," Commissioner Steve White said.

Restaurant taxes can be tapped only for tourism, recreation, cultural and conventional facilities. The levy is assessed in addition to sales tax at restaurants. Restaurant owners in Utah County welcomed Tuesday's news. "Sounds great to us," said Priscilla Atterberry, who owns PaPa's Southern Smoked BBQ in Provo with her husband, Boyd. "I never figured out why we [restaurants] were higher in the first place."

Craig Witham, who owns Los Hermanos restaurants in Provo and Lindon, also lauded the tax dip.

"No one's ever complained they have to pay a penny extra," Witham said. "But it's great that [the commissioners] realized they had a surplus, and they're cutting back."

For the past seven years, the county's Recreation and Culture fund has been running a surplus, which hit $7.1 million in 2005.

White and Commissioner Jerry Grover voted in favor of the tax decrease. Commissioner Larry Ellertson voted against it, arguing those revenues soon will be needed.

"The commission, in the past, has been very prudent in not taxing for what was not needed," Ellertson said. "But there are several good investments for this money."

Specifically, Ellertson would like to see the extra revenues set aside for work on a Utah Lake trail system.

Other possible suitors for the restaurant-tax revenues include a proposed convention center - sites have been offered in Provo, Pleasant Grove and Thanksgiving Point - a county recreation center and repairs to the Historic Utah County Courthouse.

"I was prepared to leave it [at 0.7 percent] to go forward on some of these projects," Ellertson said.

Other commissioners countered that plenty of surplus money remains for future endeavors - even with the decrease.

thollingshead@sltrib.com