Money top issue on big road projects
Utah County to ask voters to OK sales tax hike of 1/4 cent
Utah County's commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday to place the issue on the ballot, even though several officials urged them to wait until Utah lawmakers could offer matching funds or work out plans that could maximize money spent.
Darrell Cook, executive director of Mountainland Association of Governments, said Utah County may lose out on some better opportunities if they go forward with road-construction funded by taxes collected only in Utah Valley.
The association "is totally committed to work with you," Cook said, "but there may be some benefit to considering a delay to next year or the year after."
Utah County Auditor Kim Jackson said the printer must have the information by this Friday if the issue is to appear on the general election ballot.
Lindon Mayor Larry Ellertson, who will become a county commissioner in January, said Utah County's decision to strike out on its own may disrupt some plans that are being negotiated and considered by the Transportation Task Force.
Commissioner Gary Herbert — attending the commission meeting via the telephone — said he's inclined to hold off asking voters for a yes or now.
But fellow commissioners Steve White and Jerry Grover said they're not inclined to wait for funding from Capitol Hill.
Herbert, the running mate of GOP gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., said a small number of state decisionmakers grasped the magnitude of Utah County's problem. Now, Herbert said, more are aware of the road woes.
His colleagues on the commission were not convinced.
"Until 2017, there's no money (in the transportation budget) for Utah County," said White. "Our goal is to solve transportation problems, not to grandstand."
White said road funds promised to Utah County and others have been taken away for education. And inflation and rising costs keep the gas tax from making a larger impact.
White said an additional lane for I-15 will do nothing to relieve the congestion on the overpasses and connecting roads into towns like Spanish Fork, American Fork and Lehi.
"There is nowhere to go," he said. "It isn't just I-15. It's everyplace you get on and everyplace you get off."
Waiting until next year would make it a special election, which typically has a poor voter turnout. In 2006, the tax increase would be competing with the proposed tax increase for commuter rail in Utah County.
After the vote in the general election, the commissioners will then have another opportunity to decide whether to impose the tax increase or not.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com
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