Chamber proposes tax hike for TRAX

The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce wants voters to approve a sales-tax hike this fall that would raise the tax amount dedicated to transportation to a total of 1 percent in Salt Lake Davis, Weber and Utah counties.

The money would be used to more than double the amount of transit along the Wasatch Front. But it also would give those Utah residents the third-highest total tax burden in the United States.

The chamber's proposal comes just three months after lawmakers reduced the state's portion of sales tax on food by two percent, or $70 million.

Leaders of the chamber, which is Utah's largest business association, said that building transit projects now is critical to the state's economy. On Tuesday, chamber leaders and a group called the 2015 Transportation Alliance unveiled their plan to increase sales tax in order to help build projects like four planned TRAX extensions in Salt Lake County and commuter rail to Utah County.

Their plan is substantially more ambitious than one being floated by the Utah Transit Authority to raise property taxes in Salt Lake County in order to fund just the four TRAX extensions.

Groups like the Utah Taxpayers Association and some lawmaker have already lined up to oppose the chamber's plan. But the chamber leaders say they're ready for the challenge.

"In the long term, this affects more people than the Olympics did," said Chamber President Lane Beattie. "To keep the economy growing, we must keep goods and people flowing."

To get the sales-tax increase on the ballot this November, the chamber must go through a two-step process. First, it must get Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to call a special session of the Utah Legislature to approve a bill authorizing counties to put the sales-tax increase on the ballot. Second, it must get county governments to also vote to put the increase on the ballot.

Huntsman spokesman Mike Mower said Tuesday that "there are no plans to call a special session at this time." But the governor is interested in reviewing the chamber's proposal and "continuing discussions with legislative leadership and the Chamber of Commerce about the transit proposal," Mower said.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said Tuesday that he plans to discuss the proposal with Republican senators during caucus meetings today. Opinions are already mixed.

"Some of them are pretty warm to the idea and some are pretty cool," he said. "I feel somewhat schizophrenic, because we just reduced the sales-tax base, and now there's a call for a big sales-tax increase."