Negotiations between Gov. Gary Herbert, legislative leaders and the Salt Lake City Council over the controversial inland port have been successful enough for Herbert to call lawmakers into a special session on Wednesday to make changes to the bill passed in the final hours of the 2018 session.
You’ll notice that the one big piece of the Salt Lake City puzzle that’s missing is Mayor Jackie Biskupski. Herbert, lawmakers, and members of the city council said at a hastily called press conference Monday morning they had hoped her administration would be part of the process to make changes to the inland port legislation, but she refused after previous negotiations with Herbert had broken down.
“We worked with the Mayor for a couple of months and thought we had a special session worked out, but that did not get support from the Mayor,” said Herbert. “The city council reached out, which allowed us to re-engage on this important issue.”
The inland port is one of 11 issues put on the special session call Herbert issued Monday morning. Lawmakers will also tackle several tax-related matters, including modifying state sales tax collections following a Supreme Court decision allowing states to collect sales taxes from online purchases.
City Council Chair Erin Mendenhall says her group was able to negotiate several changes to the inland port legislation important to the city, including allocating 10% of the tax dollars collected from the project for affordable housing and making sure municipalities were compensated for providing services and infrastructure for the inland port project. The City Council also got an agreement from lawmakers to bring the Department of Environmental Quality into the planning process for the facility.
“We have welcomed with open arms this invitation to sit at the table with state leaders and address the issues of concern to us,” said Mendenhall. “This project was taking shape whether or not the city was at the table.”
Critics say the process is being rushed and not providing enough public input for the massive project that will have an impact on Salt Lake City for decades to come. House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, disagrees.
“The reality is we spent all session deliberating on the inland port issue. It’s not accurate to say it was rushed. This has been a deliberate and measured effort,” says Hughes. He added that lawmakers were hoping to have a special session in May to make changes. “You could say it’s taken us a little longer than we had hoped.”
Mendenhall added that the process, while seemingly truncated, has been productive.
“The bulk of our concerns have largely been addressed. There are some tweaks to come. For the most part, we’ve assuaged the city’s concerns a great deal,” she said.
But, despite the happy talk on Monday morning, the absence of Mayor Jackie Biskupski from the event, and the inland port negotiations was painfully obvious.
Salt Lake City Councilmember Charlie Luke says the council invited the Mayor to participate in the deliberations several times, but they were rebuffed.
“She started to work on a special session earlier that fell apart. When that happened, we re-engaged and started pushing the same agenda that we had been pursuing. We invited her staff multiple times to participate, but they didn’t. I think that does a disservice to the city,” said Luke.
Gov. Gary Herbert also took a thinly-veiled shot at Biskupski’s refusal to engage on the issue after negotiations fell apart.
“This is a new opportunity to have better relations between the capital city and the state of Utah,” Herbert said pointedly. “We now have a chance for the state and Salt Lake City to work together in a collaborative way. We want the Mayor to be involved in this. We’ve extended an invitation, but she’s declined. We want everybody around the table.”
