Transit vote approved

That is because some of the sales tax money must be used to buy land for road projects like the proposed Mountain View Corridor, a freeway that would connect western Salt Lake and Utah counties. And with Utah County leaders pushing a ballot initiative to fund commuter rail though their county, Salt Lake County leaders have said that commuter rail is a higher priority in their county as well.

The Salt Lake County Council is holding a special meeting Thursday to change the ballot language from the existing property tax bond to the new sales tax levy. In private discussions, council members have said that the Draper line is furthest behind in terms of environmental studies and could be an option to be postponed, said Councilman Michael Jensen.

But "it is what it is," he added. "Let the chips fall where they may."

Beyond this year's election, the bill would provide a mechanism for all of Utah's 29 counties to address their transportation issues on a much more local level, since they would be able to bring in revenue earmarked for their county. That could mean anything from constructing new roads to handling suburban growth to upgrading airports to allow more commercial air travel, said Mike Mower, spokesman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

"This allows counties and county voters to decide what transportation projects merit a sales tax increase," he said.

Southern Utah legislators were especially interested in the airport funding because it could allow St. George to build a new, $200 million airport that would ideally bring in more regional commercial airlines.

Although the bill passed with strong support, it still had enough detractors to prolong debates for more than five hours in the House and Senate. Opponents were critical of such a significant change being done during a one-day special session and were skeptical that a sales tax increase was the best way to fund transportation.

"I say by jove, if this is so darned important, why don't these people just decide," Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said. "If it's that good and the public is so supportive of it, why should we waste time in an election? I don't see any real need to rush this through and not give people a chance to think about it."

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com; jloftin@desnews.com