Sales tax for transit may get on '07 Davis ballot

FARMINGTON — While Davis County residents won't have a chance to vote on preserving routes for future roads this year, they may have the chance in November 2007.

Such a vote could make an extension of the Legacy Parkway happen more quickly through the northern part of Davis County than the 28 years that long-range planners have estimated for the project, according to members of the Davis County Board of Commissioners.

The catch is that the land where a new freeway could go is owned by hundreds of private landowners from Farmington to West Point and would cost an estimated $54 million to acquire.

Davis commissioners believe money from a sales-tax increase for transportation could help with those costs. The state Legislature passed a bill last week that allowed counties to let voters decide on the sales-tax increase. But the only entity quick enough to act was the Salt Lake County Council, which put the tax increase on this year's ballot.

The law allows counties to ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales-tax increase, which would bring about $10 million a year into Davis County. But Davis County Commissioner Dannie McConkie said Tuesday that he didn't feel there was enough time to inform Davis voters about a ballot change.

He urged future commissioners to take up the issue. McConkie lost in this year's Davis County Republican convention, and Commissioner Carol Page is retiring from office. Whoever takes their places should do the needed public-relations work to get voters on board, McConkie said.

The Davis commissioners voted against a $10 motor-vehicle registration fee increase in late March for corridor preservation, although 10 out of the county's 15 cities had voiced support for the fee increase. Some mayors were upset the commissioners didn't go forward with the fee increase, because land costs are rising. The vehicle-fee increase would have brought $2 million a year into the county.

But McConkie said the sales-tax increase was a better option. "The people get to speak on this matter," he said.

Besides the increased revenue, the law mandates that at least 25 percent of the increase go toward corridor preservation.

If he were going to be around next year, McConkie said, he would seek voter approval of the increase, and if it passed, he would set up a fund to use all $10 million for corridor preservation. That would facilitate the purchase of almost all the land needed for a freeway within six years.

McConkie said he wishes the county had been able to consider the option of a sales-tax increase in March, rather than the vehicle-fee increase.

"I think if we would have had three or four months, we would have been in there looking at putting this on the ballot," he said.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com