The Salt Lake Organizing Committee has filed a formal appeal asking the State tax Commission to overturn the county Board of Equalization’s decision May 8 not to grant an exemption on the equipment and furniture for calendar years 2000 and 2001. SLOC says that all of its real and personal property in Salt Lake County qualifies for the tax exemption because the organizing committee is a non-profit company under the Internal Revenue Code. Also, attorney Bruce Olsen contended the property “is used in furthering SLOC’s charitable purposes”, namely providing economic benefits to the county by staging the Olympics. A hearing date has not yet been set.
Peaks Ice Arena manager Max Rabner doesn’t want to pay for brighter lights and improved ventilation at the Provo area, one of the hockey venues for the 2002 Winter Games. Rabner and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee each claim the other is contractually obligated to finance pre-Olympic improvements. Although he wouldn’t disclose the cost, Rabner said it reaches “well into six figures”. The Provo arena will be the site of 24 men’s and women’s hockey games, including the women’s bronze medal game. The gold medal games and 29 others will take place at the E Center in West Valley City. Rabner said Peak is a recreational skating rink and money for improvements, such as boosting lighting to meet international broadcast standards, shouldn’t come from his pocket.
How corny can you get? Steve Ames, a farmer in Framington, Utah, pruned a cornfield maze into the shape of the five Olympic rings that feature the logo of an Olympic sponsor Nu Skin. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s brand-protection department told Ames to either plow the corn under or alter the crop so it no longer looks like the Olympic logo, but Ames says he has an e-mail, signed by Nu Skin’s Olympic marketing director thanking him for using its logo. Nu Skin officials now say they want their logo out of the field as well and company spokesman Larry Macfarlane said Ames was told he would have to get approval from SLOC. Meanwhile Brett Herbst, a corn-grazer grower from American Fork, said Olympic officials wanted $10,000 to let him crop the rings into one of his fields, but the price was too steep and he said he doesn’t think it’s fair for Ames to use the Olympic rings to lure people to his field. Ames has been charging people about $5 to walk through the corn maze.
U.S. federal prosecutors have been given approval to appeal the dismissal of racketeering charges against Salt Lake City’s Olympic bid leaders. But the Solicitor General’s decision doesn’t make a trial inevitable. U.S. District Judge David Sam could still derail the prosecution by tossing out all the charges against Tom Welch and David Johnson, Salt Lake City’s Olympic bid leaders. He already has dismissed some charges. Former Salt Lake Mayor Ted Wilson said Gov. Mike Leavitt and Sen. Orrin Hatch dread the prospect of having to testify about their involvement in the tainted Olympic bid. Wilson said Leavitt and Hatch have political reasons for wanting to abort a trial “even if they didn’t do anything wrong”.
And finally, defence lawyers in the Salt Lake bribery case filed a 19-page brief asserting a grand jury wouldn’t have indicted Salt Lake bid head Tom Welch or deputy Dave Johnson at all if not for the “inflammatory” bribery allegations, “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. The lawyers want a federal judge to throw out the conspiracy and fraud counts too. But the government maintains that a little editing, substituting “unauthorized payments” for “bribes”, could leave the conspiracy and fraud case intact. U.S. District Judge David Sam may call a hearing before deciding. Federal prosecutors have served notice they plan to appeal Sam’s racketeering dismissal. The maneuvering could put off any trial until after February’s Games.
