While most county leaders were on-board with funding commuter rail, I-80 and TRAX, two mayors voted against the plan. Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall and West Jordan Mayor Dave Newton said they were upset that the state Legislature forced the county to consider roads and commuter rail for funding instead of light rail only.

Commuter rail was considered for funding after Utah County residents this past November approved a separate quarter-cent sales-tax hike to build commuter rail from Provo to the Salt Lake County line. The original intent of Salt Lake County leaders was just to fund four TRAX lines.

"It seems like the whole thing is a sham in a way," Newton said. "I think the process was flawed."

He added that Salt Lake County leaders spent months developing a process to rank the transportation projects to see what should be funded, only to ignore the process and pick projects they really wanted.

During a public comment period on Tuesday, two residents questioned whether spending money on transit was the best way to relieve congestion. Michael Packard, a transit opponent from Sandy, said that money would be better spent on roads.

"The basic question is: 'Are these transit projects significant?'" Packard said. "They are not. Freeways are the only answer."

But not for county Councilman Joe Hatch, who is a vocal supporter of transit. "All you have to do is look at the bottom line: 97 percent of those funds are going to transit," he said. "How could I not be a happy camper with that?"

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