Local officials pushing for road funds
The Utah League of Cities and Towns wants the limit to be removed on how much state sales-tax money is diverted to municipalities for class B and C roads, defined as public highways, roads or streets maintained by a county or a municipality.
Cities and towns receive one-sixteenth of a cent from the state's portion of sales tax for local road projects, although that allotment is capped at $17.5 million.
The state Legislature in 2001 imposed that ceiling, which at the time equaled one-sixteenth of a cent of the state's sales-tax revenue, said Lincoln Shurtz, the league's director of legislative affairs.
Sales-tax revenues have increased since then, but the cap has prevented municipalities from benefiting from that growth, Shurtz said. One-sixteenth of a cent now generates between $21 million and $22 million annually.
"So all of that growth in sales tax that has occurred over the past four years has essentially not gone to B and C roads as originally intended," he said.
Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, has been working with the League of Cities and Towns and plans to sponsor a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would remove the cap, Shurtz said. Lockhart did not return phone calls seeking comment on the bill.
"What we're trying to do is get a little bit more harmony in what the B and C allocation pays for," he said.
Elected officials statewide have been making efforts to increase the amount of money going into transportation, he said, citing as examples the quarter-cent sales tax increases approved in Salt Lake and Utah counties.
"This is really an opportune time to do something," Shurtz said. "It has to work as a network. You can have the major corridors running effectively, but if you can't get to your house, that's a problem. We need to make sure we're keeping the local infrastructure up to speed as well."
The rising cost of materials used in road construction and maintenance has made that tricky, said Russ Willardson, West Valley City's public works director.
"The price of oil has gone up so much that it's really hurting us," Willardson said.
West Valley City receives $3.4 million in class B and C road funds from the state and about $900,000 from the city's general fund annually, he said. To properly maintain the 311 miles of road in the city, Willardson estimates another $200,000 will be needed in the next budget year.
Unless something is done at the legislative level, "we'll have to decrease what we're doing," he said.
Cities all along the Wasatch Front are having similar problems. Farmington recently had to cancel three of its planned road projects because of the cost of construction materials, Shurtz said.
"They just ran out of money," he said.
E-mail: jpage@desnews.com
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