This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

Having just wrapped up a testy tiff over tax breaks over in West Jordan, a debate on the opposite approach to building a city the way it needs to be built — impact fees — is restarting in Salt Lake City.

"On the outskirts of West Jordan, just outside of Copperton and at the base of the Oquirrh Mountains, is a sprawling, dusty field where Vicky Jones' family has been dryland farming since just after the end of World War II.

"It was on this relatively barren land that West Jordan officials envisioned a massive, 1,700-acre technology park, anchored by six vast warehouses that could house untold terabytes of Facebook user data, shuttling friend requests and status updates and birthday photos from across the globe.

"The allure of landing the world's largest social media company would undoubtedly act as a magnet, officials believed, attracting other high-tech companies to the site and revolutionizing West Jordan from a bedroom community to a cutting-edge technology hub.

"And they were willing to give up the farm — not just Jones' farm — to fulfill the goal. ..."

" ... The deal was based on the idea that it was a massive giveaway of something that government didn't have now and therefore wouldn't miss. It would have given Facebook the gift of paying only a small fraction of its property taxes over the next 20 years, but West Jordan and to a lesser extent the Jordan School District still wanted it because even that small fraction was more than the farmland is producing now for them.

"For the school district in particular, the willingness to sign on says much about just how desperate Jordan is to grow its tax base. ..."

" ... Mayor Jackie Biskupski's office released a consultant's study Monday, calling for overhauls to impact fees that would substantially raise charges on some residential construction while lowering those on commercial projects.

"Revised charges on new development are essential, officials say, to help offset added demand on parks, roads and public safety services as the city grows. ..."

Related:

Should we ban states and cities from offering big tax breaks for jobs? — Emily Badger | Wonkblog | The Washington Post

" ... Yet in an alternate universe — one where states don't go to economic war over tech companies, corporate headquarters or auto plants — it seems logical that Tesla would still have to build its battery factory somewhere (maybe even Nevada). And if everyone weren't bidding for the facility, setting off an arm's race of tax abatements and public subsidies, no one would have to pay them. ..."

"The way Donald J. Trump tells it, his first solo project as a real estate developer, the conversion of a faded railroad hotel on 42nd Street into the sleek, 30-story Grand Hyatt, was a triumph from the very beginning.

"The hotel, Mr. Trump bragged in 'Trump: The Art of the Deal,' his 1987 best seller, 'was a hit from the first day. Gross operating profits now exceed $30 million a year.'

"But that book, and numerous interviews over the years, make little mention of a crucial factor in getting the hotel built: an extraordinary 40-year tax break that has cost New York City $360 million to date in forgiven, or uncollected, taxes, with four years still to run, on a property that cost only $120 million to build in 1980.

"The project set the pattern for Mr. Trump's New York career: He used his father's, and, later, his own, extensive political connections, and relied on a huge amount of assistance from the government and taxpayers in the form of tax breaks, grants and incentives to benefit the 15 buildings at the core of his Manhattan real estate empire. ..."

Trump Won Tax Breaks While Donating Tens Of Thousands To Corrupt Official — Christina Wilkie | The Huffington Post

"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gave at least $45,000 to the campaign of Alan Hevesi, a New York state comptroller who later went to prison for his role in a pay-to-play bribery scandal, according to a Huffington Post review of campaign finance records. ..."