Should Orem City raise gasoline tax 10 cents a gallon? Lee Davidson. Salt Lake Tribune.

Forces combining to push tax hike for transportation

Transportation » Outside groups, local officials get involved, encouraging lawmakers to boost taxes.

By Lee Davidson

| The Salt Lake Tribune

"I think it’s inevitable that we have to face it," Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, co-chairman of the Transportation Interim Committee, said after a few panel study sessions on whether more funding is needed and, if so, how to raise it.

Several groups are working to build a case that transportation tax hikes are overdue and also to offer some political cover for lawmakers, many of whom face voters next year.  rategy » Consider some recent chess-like moves toward a possible tax hike:

» Cities and counties are asking legislators to allow them to raise gasoline taxes by maybe 5 to 10 cents a gallon to catch up with maintenance of local roads. While that would require the Legislature’s OK, local officials would take the heat for actually raising taxes. Cities, which hold elections this year, don’t face them next year.

» The Salt Lake Chamber formed the Utah Transportation Coalition — led by former LDS Church Presiding Bishop H. David Burton and Wells Fargo Bank Mountain Division Manager David Golden — to push for transportation investment. It released a study last week saying economic benefits of such tax hikes would be far greater than costs.

» The Utah Department of Transportation, while not directly asking for more money, has been discussing with legislators how funds from gas taxes are not keeping up with needs — and how UDOT had to halt all preventive maintenance on lesser-traveled roads, about 40 percent of all state highways.

» The nonpartisan Utah Foundation recently released a report saying that with current taxes, Utah will have an $11.3 billion shortfall over the next 30 years for planned, high-priority highway and mass transit projects. When looking at total needs — not just high-priority ones — it would fall $26.6 billion behind.

» The Utah Transit Authority has floated the idea in meetings with local officials of raising sales taxes to fund quicker expansion of rail and bus projects, but has found little support voiced. Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie, however, endorses hiking sales taxes for transit. UTA has no current plans to raise fares — now among the nation’s highest — but is looking to restructure them based on distance traveled instead of flat fees. The change may generate more revenue overall.

Lee Davidson. Salt Lake Tribune