Salt Lake County Council votes to impose tax to fund transit projects

The Salt Lake County Council today voted to impose a quarter-cent sales tax to fund road and transit projects.

The projects include light-rail lines to South Jordan and West Valley, commuter rail through Salt Lake County, and improvements to Interstate 80 between State Street and 1300 East.

Construction on the transit lines is expected to start next year, with work slated for completion within 10 years, said Utah Transit Authority spokesman Justin Jones.

"It, in my mind, was a big win," Councilwoman Jenny Wilson said of the vote. "I can't think of a day I've felt better about an outcome."

By approving the sales tax to fund the two light-rail lines, UTA officials said other dollars would be freed to help finance construction of new TRAX lines to the Salt Lake City International Airport and to Draper. Those two lines will also start construction next year and will be finished within 10 years.

Collection of the sales tax will begin April 1.

Earlier this week, the County Council and county mayors gave their approval to spending the sales-tax money to help fund the two TRAX lines, commuter rail and the I-80 improvements.

The road and transit projects were picked out of a list of 34 compiled by the Wasatch Front Regional Council.

Once completed, $2.5 billion will be spent on the projects funded by the sales-tax money.

The West Valley line will require $700 million to build, with the sales-tax money covering $450 million of that cost. The Mid-Jordan line will be about $750 million, which will all come from the sales-tax increase. Commuter rail will cost about $1.3 billion to build, with all of the cost covered by the sales tax. The improvements to I-80 will cost about $128 million, with $30 million coming from the sales-tax increase.

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