And if it is alive, then Curtis ought to get out of the way.
The Sandy Republican apparently blames his previous support for the stadium for his squeaker of a re-election victory in November. And he says that with the county taking so long to parse the numbers - numbers that now include $30 million from Salt Lake County's stateauthorized hotel tax - the deal is dead anyway.
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, Curtis' plan to have the session of the Utah Legislature beginning today move quickly to withdraw the legal authority for the county to contribute hotel tax to the stadium is premature, if not downright petulant.
Last year, with Curtis' active support, the Legislature changed the law that authorizes counties to collect hotel taxes so as to allow such revenue to be put toward the $110 million stadium planned for the corner of 9400 South and State Street.
The plan has drawn a lot of public criticism, widely denounced as corporate welfare. Curtis apparently feels his support for the deal, rather than being widely praised as major league economic development, was what brought him within 20 votes of being turned out of office.
Fine, Curtis now seems to say. I'm not only going to take my marbles and go home, I'm going to take the county's, Sandy's and RSL's marbles with me, too.
There is no need for such rapid action. Even though Curtis' proposed alternatives for the funds - building the planned TRAX extension to Salt Lake City International Airport or boosting the Hogle Zoo - are worthy projects that would be proper uses of tourism taxes, there is no need to pre-empt any remaining chance for the stadium deal to go through.
County Mayor Peter Corroon and other county officials are carefully reviewing the plan. They've engaged the services of some outside experts and have properly put the whole question before the county's debt review committee. Such caution is proper, not meddlesome.
If the county ends up rejecting the whole deal, the 2008 legislative session will be the right time to change whatever laws need changing.
