Transit funding held up

The Salt Lake County Council is tired of waiting for the Legislature to make up its mind about transportation funding.

Nearly two months after voters approved a quarter-cent sales-tax hike to fund road and transit projects in the county, the tax issue is caught in a web of politics, and if it is not resolved soon, council members are threatening to not levy the tax at all.

"If we're not comfortable with the project list, we should just say thumbs down and not impose the tax," said councilman Joe Hatch. "We should not disagree with the list and then impose the tax."

The rub for county leaders: The council and Salt Lake County mayors have twice been rejected by state lawmakers in their efforts to outline where exactly the tax money will go. Today, mayors and the council will meet with lawmakers for a third time, and they hope to get approval of a process for picking projects to be funded by the tax increase.

By law, legislative leaders must approve a process for selecting which projects receive funding. During a November meeting of the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee, lawmakers were presented with a process but declined to approve it because they said it was too vague.

County leaders now have a packet with more than 36 pages of graphs and charts that explain, in detail, how they will pick the projects. They've also spent the past week explaining the information to lawmakers.

"We think the committee as a whole is well-informed and well-prepared for this meeting," said West Valley Mayor Dennis Nordfelt.

Today is the last chance for county leaders to get approval of the process before the General Legislative Session starts in January. If the they have to wait until January, it will be more difficult to get a hearing before the appropriations committee because lawmakers will have many more bills and issues to consider.

"I do think that the time has come for the Executive Appropriations Committee to act," said Nordfelt, who serves as chair of the Wasatch Front Regional Council. "My hope is that they'll vote it either up or down, instead of delay."

Several county insiders believe House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, is the one to blame for holding up the committee's decision-making process. They claim that Curtis, an influential member of the committee, won't budge on the legislative approval of the transportation funding until county leaders approve spending public money to help finance a soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake in Sandy.

Curtis insists he has done nothing to torpedo the process. "I haven't done anything to affect the agenda on it," Curtis said.