Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs sales tax goes up Jan. 1

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — The sales tax for Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs goes up a quarter cent on Jan. 1 to 6.45 cents for every dollar spent in the west Utah County towns.

Voters agreed to the increase in the Nov. 4 election to raise funding for express bus service to Salt Lake City and to join the Utah Transit Authority district.

County commissioners also agreed that if the ballot measure passed they would go to work encouraging the Legislature to allow commissioners to bring the rest of the county into the UTA district. All of Utah County has UTA service except the southernmost towns of Elk Ridge, Woodland Hills, Santaquin, Genola and Goshen, plus Vineyard between Orem and Utah Lake.

UTA will begin express bus service to Salt Lake City twice daily on April 1, UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said. Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grants totaling $200,000 annually will fund the service for three years while the two cities build up their tax base, she said.

Both cities combined may raise from $150,000 to $225,000 annually from the quarter-center tax increase, UTA Chairman Larry Ellertson said. Ellertson is also a member of the Utah County Commission.

Within three years, a link to a new FrontRunner commuter station at Thanksgiving Point should be in operation.

At the end of the initial three years, officials will look at the funding while they make plans to continue the service, Ellertson said. By then sales tax revenues are expected to fully fund the service.

"We have three years to figure out how much service is needed," Bohnsack-Ware said.

However, UTA could consider asking Utah County to guarantee sales tax revenues.

Meanwhile, an interlocal agreement between the two cities is being finalized, she said.

As with other annexations, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain are expected to agree that all sales tax revenues be commingled with other UTA income, which would be pledged against bonds for projects throughout the transit district.

The service may switch to a connector service in 2012, taking passengers to a planned commuter rail service at Thanksgiving Point. Ground has already been broken for the terminal.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com