With the state Legislature meeting today in a special session to consider road and transit funding, transportation advocates are betting that voters will choose to pay higher sales tax to avoid another minute in gridlock.

Local politicians and business leaders on Monday rallied downtown in a last-minute effort to urge the Legislature to allow the tax increase to be on the November ballot. More than 100 transportation supporters gathered at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City to urge legislators to act now and start solving Utah's growing transportation problems.

"We may be the crossroads of the West, but we may also be the bottleneck of the West," Murray Mayor Dan Snarr said. "This is the right thing to do. We should fund it."

Legislators will meet in a special session today on two issues: legislation on state and local-option funding for road, transit and airport improvements; and legislation amending the state's individual income-tax system.

Sales tax or not, the Legislature can't solve the state's transportation woes all at once, said Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse. But something needs to be done now, because the state has $16.5 billion in unmet transportation needs, he said.

Barring any last-minute changes, Killpack said he believes the Legislature will let voters choose to raise the sales tax for transportation projects.

"It's not a cure-all, but it's a start," Killpack said. "As long as we can keep all the rabbits on the flatbed, this will move forward."

The Salt Lake County Council already voted in July to place an $895 million property-tax hike on the ballot to pay for four new TRAX lines. But that ballot proposition will likely be replaced by the sales-tax hike if the Legislature gives the go-ahead today, County Councilman Randy Horiuchi said.

Light-rail expansion is the County Council's top priority. But with the Utah County Commission's vote last month to put a sales-tax increase on the ballot to build commuter rail, Salt Lake County leaders must also find a way to fund commuter rail. It makes no sense for Utah County to build the line if it doesn't connect through Salt Lake County, said John Inglish, the Utah Transit Authority's general manager.

To fund both TRAX and commuter rail, one or two TRAX lines may be postponed, Horiuchi said.

Of the four lines, Draper is furthest behind in terms of environmental and engineering studies, but the line could still be built quickly because the route for it has already been purchased, unlike other lines. The other TRAX lines will run to West Valley, South Jordan and the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Choosing which line should be postponed won't be easy, Horiuchi said, but getting voters on board to approve a sales tax for a statewide transportation system is worth it.