Opposition to the bill primarily came from Democrats in the House, who voted as a bloc against the bill because it only leaves $65 million of the $224 million in ongoing funds to spend on other programs. Essentially, they were wanting more money for public and higher education and feared that spending that much money on transportation would hurt schools.

"Certainly we need to plan ahead for our transportation needs, but we also need to plan for our other needs, especially education," House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said. "By putting this much money into transportation, we are not looking at our other needs in a balanced way."

Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, disputed the notion that lawmakers are spending money on roads and not schools. Instead, they are simply committing now to address the state's pressing transportation needs and will be able to work with the rest of the problems in the coming weeks, he said.

"I fully support money going to public education and higher education, and guarantee that I will be fighting for funding there," he said. "To say this boxes us into a position is untrue."

Only two senators, Democrats Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake, and Patrice Arent, D-Murray, voted against the bill. Hale said that she simply could not support spending that much money on roads.

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Contributing: Bob Bernick Jr. and Lisa Riley Roche

E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com