A controversial inland port bill passed the House on Friday and turned out not to be so controversial after all.
HB433 passed 66-11, with all Republican, and even a few Democratic, votes.
The inland port, of course, has become Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s cause celebre – she hates it.
She even refused to talk to GOP legislators last year when the Legislature originally passed the port law, which sets up how the large facility will be constructed out in the northwest part of the city by the international airport.
House Majority Leader Frances Gibson, R-Mapleton, who sits on the port board, is the sponsor of HB433.
He said the changes he proposes will help rural Utah by allowing “satellite” ports to handle all kinds of products, from coal to hay, and allow the benefits of an inland port all over the state, not just in Salt Lake City.
Large products, like coal and hay, could pass through customs without having to be shipped to Salt Lake City, processed, and then sent back into rural Utah, or other rural nearby states.
That will help with truck and rail congestion in northwest Salt Lake City and air quality concerns.
A number of rural lawmakers rose to support Gibson.
Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, noted that the current Freeport Center up there may want to become an inland port satellite.
It can, said Gibson, but only with approval by the local city or county legislative body – so citizens can be represented.
In fact, HB433 says the inland port authority can be sued by a local government, but only by the legislative body of that government
In short, Biskupski as mayor can’t sue the authority – but then the Salt Lake City Council which has fought Biskupski for some time over the port has already stopped her from filing such a promised suit.
“I have worked well” with the Salt Lake City Council, said Gibson. The council may not be getting all it wants, but Gibson said he, too, is not getting all he wants in the bill.
One important concession, the city and Salt Lake County will get more tax increment financing taxes under HB433, and if satellites are set up, those local governments can get up to 10 percent tax increment from the products that use the port/satellite.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
