On Tuesday, the Cache County Council adopted Resolution 22-16, which set the stage for a renewal of the Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos Tax by county voters in November.
CACHE COUNTY – Voters here will be asked to renew Cache County’s Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos (RAPZ) Tax this fall.
On Tuesday night, the members of the Cache Council Council voted unanimously to approve Resolution 22-16. That resolution authorized the county to place on the Nov. 8 ballot an optional sales and use tax to fund recreational facilities, arts organizations, parks and zoos.
Council member Gina H. Worthen suggested that it might be time to consider increasing the tax amount, but the time and language of the referendum will be decided at a later date.
This will be the second time that the RAPZ Tax is up for renewal.
Cache County has collected a 1 percent sales tax on prepared food since 1992 to fund support for tourism, recreation and the cultural arts.
The RAPZ (Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos) tax — which is a tenth of 1 percent sales tax — was added in 2002 to support capital projects and the operating expenses of local recreational venues.
Since 2002, organizations in Cache County have been awarded more than $64 million in grants.
That included more than $26 million from RAPZ revenues for projects that support recreation, arts, parks and Zootah at Willow Park.
The RAPZ Tax comes up for renewal every 10 years.
Wendi Hassan, the executive director of the Cache Valley Center for the Arts, has been preparing for this year’s reauthorization of the tax.
In early June, she reminded all performing arts groups to express gratitude to county voters for their generosity in renewing the tax in 2012.
The CacheARTS organization has also been spearheading an effort to perform an economic impact study of summer visitors here.
At the last performance of the CacheARTS 2021-22 national touring season — the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater – Hassan urged audience members to complete a 13-question survey she distributed.
“This survey is part of a study to measure the economic and social impact of the arts and culture on Cache Valley,” Hassan explained. “This research is being conducted by CacheARTS in partnerships with Americans for the Arts.
“We are already 13 percent of our way to our goal of collecting 800 intercept surveys at events in Cache County,” she added. “But we want to be sure that we are gathering surveys throughout the summer, because those shows have our greatest out-of-the-area impact.”
Summer attractions include Summerfest, productions by Lyric Repertory Company, Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre and the Four Seasons Theatre Company and the Cache Valley Cruise-In, among others.
The Cache Valley Center for the Arts is an independent non-profit organization that promotes the use of Cache Valley’s publicly owned cultural arts facilities.
Those facilities include the Ellen Eccles Theatre, the Thatcher-Young Mansion and the Bullen Center.