"Are you going to put TRAX everywhere or expect that people take a bus to TRAX and then downtown?" asked Eileen Stevenson, of Kearns. "It doesn't go everywhere."

Bill Tibbitts, an anti-hunger advocate with Crossroads Urban Center, worries that low-income residents will be burdened even more if their landlords cover the costs of a property-tax hike by raising rents. He also said the agency should do more to cut administrative fat and reduce inefficiencies before asking residents to pay more for TRAX.

Salt Lake business leaders, meanwhile, say building more rail lines will enhance the state's economy. Lane Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, said that without a good transportation system, businesses won't move to the state. That means fewer jobs for a state whose population is estimated to reach 3.5 million people by 2030.

"Just plan on having your children and husbands and brothers and sisters having to move out of the state," Beattie said. "There will be no jobs here."

Funding new roads and transit is one of the chamber's top goals. It has authorized a study of transportation needs in the state, primarily along the Wasatch Front. Costs of the study are expected to reach $45,000. When finished in the next two weeks, the chamber may use the study to lobby the Legislature for more road funding or to lead a campaign this fall for a ballot referendum for transit.

"If we don't do more today, we will be crippled tomorrow," Beattie said.

Light rail in the West

Utah isn't alone in asking voters to help pay for mass-transit systems. Last year, 22 transportation-funding initiatives were approved by voters nationwide, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). In 2004, 42 of 53 initiatives were passed, including a record $4.7 billion transit-expansion plan in Denver and a $4.5 billion transit plan in Phoenix.

"I think it comes down to the fact that people simply want choice," said Bill Millar, APTA president. "They love the automobile but don't want to be stuck in traffic. And in many cases in the West, people don't have much choice other than the car."

Light-rail lines do decrease traffic, UTA says. With the current number of TRAX riders, UTA estimates that the equivalent of one lane of traffic is taken off I-15 during peak travel hours.

But transit opponents say the costs of expanding TRAX far outweigh any perceived benefits. Randal O'Toole, an economist who directs the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute, says rail is but a costly "urban monument" that requires continual maintenance and eventual replacement.