Rocky blasts 'extremist' GOP

"We want our friends from the north to come to Salt Lake City," he said. "We just don't want them to increase our city's traffic, further foul our air, undermine the quality of our lives and make us sick simply because of the choices they make about where they live and how they get around."

Adams noted that there are 1 million people in Salt Lake County — many of whom are commuters —and only about 200,000 people in Davis County. To say that northern commuters are making Salt Lake people sick doesn't seem very logical, he said.

The Layton representative also pointed out that when the quarter-cent sales tax increase — which funded commuter rail and the University of Utah light rail spur — was on the ballot it passed by a greater margin in Davis County than in Salt Lake County.

As for the Legislature, Adams said he didn't think any lawmaker would be vindictive toward Salt Lake City but noted Utah's capital does receive a good deal of resources from the Legislature.

"You have the Salt Palace, the University of Utah wants a new library and there are all of these resources of the state that fund these things, so it's a little challenging to see that someone would use divisive tactics and make it very, very difficult to maintain positive relationships," Adams said.

Some council members, who have good environmental records, took offense to the mayor's question about what they had done to protect Salt Lake City's air quality.

Councilman Carlton Christensen noted he's spent six years on the Governor's Quality Growth Commission, which has put conservation easements on some 44,000 acres of open space.

Adams said many public officials in Davis County are ready to call for a boycott of Utah's capital over Anderson's speech.

"The mayor basically said that we make him sick," he said. "Now there's a lot of public officials up here saying, 'Maybe it's time for a boycott.' "

---

E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com