12/16/04-An effort to increase fees in Utah isn’t expected to get too far.
Despite the urging of state business leaders and transportation planners, legislators are likely to hit the brakes on a mammoth transportation funding package that includes tax increases.
The Transportation Interim Committee recently recommended a $4.5 billion transportation funding bill that would generate revenue from a quarter-cent statewide sales tax increase and a 5-cent fuel tax hike, with annual fuel tax indexing, which would mean yearly fuel tax increases. It also suggests every county be allowed to impose up to a half-cent sales tax for public transit and a quarter-cent tax for road projects, with voter approval.
The package would authorize a $20 increase in vehicle registration fees as well as an increase in registration fees for trailers, farm trucks, commercial trailers, personalized license plates and oversize and overweight permits for commercial vehicles by 10 percent. It would increase other fees and fines related to vehicle registration, license plates and commercial vehicles, and then deposit that money into a new transportation investment fund.
Senate President-elect John Valentine, R-Orem, told The Salt Lake Tribune the Legislature is going to take “incremental steps” toward funding new roadway and transit projects. The process, however, will start internally with budget prioritization and some shifting of state funds.
“Before we go to the taxpayers, we have to have our own houses clean,” he said.

11/9/04-A panel of Utah legislators is recommending more than $4 billion in additional funds be set aside over the next decade for transportation projects, with a combination of sales tax, increased fees, fines and fuel tax.
The state’s Transportation Planning Task Force voted Nov. 5 to send the plan to the full Legislature for consideration when lawmakers meet next year.
Task force members also approved a report to the state Transportation Interim Committee that will be presented this week. The report suggests a quarter-cent statewide sales tax increase and a 5-cent fuel tax hike, with annual fuel tax indexing, which would mean yearly fuel tax increases. It also suggests every county be allowed to impose up to a half-cent sales tax for public transit and a quarter-cent tax for road projects, with voter approval.
The bills recommended by the task force would generate money to buy land to build new roads, and transfer responsibility of some state roads to local governments.
One of the bills approved by the committee would authorize a $20 increase in vehicle registration fees.
Another bill, dubbed the Transportation Amendments and Highway Jurisdictional Transfer Task Force, has several parts. It would require cities and counties to notify the Utah Department of Transportation, local associations of government and transit authorities about development that would have a significant impact on state highways.
It would transfer all state roads that aren’t part of the national highway system to local jurisdictions in July 2006, unless a task force that would start meeting next year comes up with other recommendations. It would also require the state Transportation Commission to develop scientific ranking methods for new road projects. And it would give UDOT authority to create new toll roads or lanes on existing roads, and high-occupancy toll lanes on existing roads.
The third bill would increase registration fees for trailers, farm trucks, commercial trailers, personalized license plates and oversize and overweight permits for commercial vehicles by 10 percent. It would increase other fees and fines related to vehicle registration, license plates and commercial vehicles, and then deposit that money into a new transportation investment fund.
The fund would also get a percentage of sales-tax revenue, representing a portion of the amount generated by sales of vehicles and vehicle-related products. That sales tax is now going into the state’s general fund and paying for other state programs.

9/17/04-Utah County commissioners did an about face this week and pulled a quarter-cent sales tax for transportation from the November ballot.
Commissioners voted last month to put the issue on the ballot, only to change their mind Tuesday, Sept. 14, after getting a commitment from several state legislators to move at least $200 million more into transportation funding each year, The Daily Herald reported.
The tax would have generated about $12 million each year, and would have gone to a list of 27 road projects around the county.
The resolution that commissioners approved Tuesday calls for the question to be moved to the 2005 ballot, but they’ll have to vote again for it to appear on that ballot. In addition, the state Legislature would need to change the election law because it doesn’t allow counties to hold a special election for opinion questions. Next year is a municipal election year, so any countywide election would be a special election.
State lawmakers are planning bills to change the transportation project lists from being mostly political to being based on need, state Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told the newspaper. Legislators also committed to try to move $200 million per year in vehicle-related sales tax from the general fund to transportation.
The decision to put the issue on the ballot served as a “wake-up call” to local state legislators about pressing transportation needs in Utah County and about the hemorrhage in the state transportation budget, Stephenson said.
“Basically you’ve given us an impetus to make something happen in the next session of the Legislature,” he said.
The next legislative session is scheduled to convene January 17.

9/10/04-Current revenue streams will be $23.6 billion short of Utah’s roadway and transit needs by 2030, state lawmakers were told this week.
The pressing issue now facing legislators is how to come up with those additional funds, the Deseret Morning News reported.
The $23 billion figure was provided by the Utah League of Cities and Towns. The group presented its information Sept. 8 to the Legislature’s Transportation Planning Task Force, a group of lawmakers examining how the state’s transportation infrastructure can be maintained and improved.
More money was the answer provided. And there are at least 11 sources identified by the league that could be used to generate more road dollars.
“The gas tax doesn’t pay for all road and transportation needs,” Lincoln Shurtz, a legislative analyst for the League of Cities and Towns, told the newspaper. “The gas tax is obviously going to be a major component, but its relevancy is dwindling.”
Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Salt Lake City, the task force’s co-chairwoman, said the list of funding options was helpful, but asked the league to rank the different options according to its preference.
Shurtz said the league planned to meet again with the task force Oct. 13 with those specific recommendations.

8/23/04-Officials in Utah are warning of a “crippled” state economy unless taxes are raised for transportation.
The group of state lawmakers and business officials are also calling for the advancement of a 30-year plan for construction of new transit and transportation systems.
“We cannot wait until 2030,” to build new transportation systems,” Lanie Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It will cripple the economics of the state.”
Speaking Aug. 18 to members of the state’s Legislative Transportation Interim Committee, Beattie was adamant that lawmakers, transit and transportation officials work together to prevent a future congestion crunch in Utah.
John Inglish, general manager of the Utah Transit Authority, told the newspaper the population along the Wasatch Front is expected to grow by an additional 1 million people over the next three decades, and development of transit systems and corridors is critical.
Plans from UTA include the extension of light and commuter rail.
Plans from the Utah Department of Transportation call for the construction of the Legacy Highway – a 120-mile freeway that would run from Nephi to Brigham City – and expansion of other highways, roads and bridges.
These plans must be pushed forward at least 10 or 20 years – and lawmakers must be willing to allocate funds for development, Beattie said.
State Rep. Marda Dillree, R-Farmington, agreed, recommending transit and transportation officials talk with new legislators about the need for tax increases to fund development of a unified, statewide transportation system.
“There are going to have to be (tax) increases in some areas to address this issue,” she said.