Utah Legislature: State may delay road projects to save money

SALT LAKE CITY — That road construction project in your town? You may not see shovels digging in any time soon.

A handful of road projects could be delayed to save the state about $100 million. Most of the projects on the list are street widening or bridges to better accommodate traffic near railroads. Most are along the Wasatch Front, including $37.5 million in Utah County.

But members of GOP leadership, which is negotiating with the governor to balance the state's budget, are opposed to any road funding cuts.

"We need road construction," Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said. "There are congestion and problem areas that need to be addressed. And going ahead with those projects will help relieve that."

During the back-and-forth negotiations to balance the state budget, Gov. Gary Herbert obtained from the Utah Department of Transportation a list of about 20 projects that are not under contract with construction companies and could be delayed. That list was winnowed down and on Friday, there were seven projects totaling $79.5 million.

The list is an alternative to Herbert's original budget proposal released in December that suggested transferring $100 million from the transportation investment fund to the general fund. To make up for the lost transportation money, Herbert suggested bonding for it.

That didn't fly with some legislators, which led to the list.

The projects on the list will be funded from the Transportation Investment Fund and two other transportation funds.

"The governor believes that either option, pulling money from the TIF (which is essentially a savings account for transportation projects) or delaying these projects is a reasonable way to provide needed revenue for fiscal year 2011," the governor's spokeswoman, Angie Welling, said. "This funding source could help protect public and higher education from additional cuts, while also protecting critical state services."

Delaying construction to help plug pending cuts of around 5 percent in Medicaid and other social services programs would be a welcome first, say advocates for low-income Utahns. Such advocates say lawmakers have a habit of paving over the poor and joke that health and human services departments would fare much better financially if directors found a way to add a new road to their annual budget requests.

Niederhauser said the governor's list isn't popular because it is seen as a one-time solution to a problem that could continue into the future. Many Republicans prefer to go ahead with road construction because it gets people back to work, and workers will spend their earnings, which will bolster the state's economy.