Salt Lake County leaders devise way to decide on road projects

Salt Lake County leaders continued a political arm wrestle on Thursday to determine how to pick road and transit projects to put on the county's ballot this November.

County voters will be asked this year to approve or reject a quarter-cent sales-tax increase to build the transportation projects. On Thursday, all of the mayors in Salt Lake County and members of the Salt Lake County Council approved a process that they will use to determine which projects to put on the ballot.

The process — which looks at factors including congestion relief and cost-effectiveness of a given project — now has to be approved by the Legislature's Executive Appro- priations Committee, which consists of legislative leaders from both the Republican and Democratic Parties.

If approved by the committee, county leaders could then use the process to determine which projects should be on the ballot. The contenders include four new TRAX lines, commuter rail, the Mountain View Corridor and expansion of some parts of State Street. A total of 33 projects, both road and transit, will be compared against each other.

West Valley Mayor Dennis Nordfelt said Thursday that he was hopeful the process would be completed quickly to give residents time to see what projects they will be voting on this November.