For the past five years, lawmakers have had to tangle with funding for a West Valley Highway.
But this year, in addition to debating a $13 million bonding request for the highway, the Legislature must also decide what to formally call the popular road that may someday run the length of west Salt Lake Valley.The House is considering HJR8, a resolution urging the Utah Transportation Commission to name the road after former Gov. Norm Bangerter. The Senate is considering SB53, a bill that declares the road should be designated the Dix H. McMullin Highway, after the former state senator.
Of course lawmakers could reject both suggestions and let the road remain the West Valley Highway - which motorists will probably keep calling it even if lawmakers decide to rename it.
Sponsors of the name changes are both Democrats who want the road named after former Republicans. And they are both very sincere about their proposals.
"You may think this is a funny story, but I am very serious," said Rep. Kelly Atkinson, D-West Jordan. "The (former) governor deserves recognition . . . the West Valley Highway is the crowning achievement of the Bangerter administration."
Atkinson's resolution praises Bangerter for being sensitive to the transportation needs of the west side of Salt Lake Valley, where the former chief executive lived before and after his term as governor. The resolution also credits Bangerter's leadership and determination in securing $55 million in state funds to get the project started, after it had languished on the drawing table for 25 years.
"Dix (former GOP Sen. Dix McMullin) was a driving force, and you have to give him credit for being a key central player," Atkinson acknowledged. "But it was Bangerter's leadership" that convinced the conservative Utah Legislature to build a road for the first time using only state money.
Sen. Rex Black, D-Salt Lake, said he has talked with residents in west Salt Lake County who agree the road should be named after McMullin, who was unseated in last September's primary election.
Black said it was McMullin's work behind the scenes in 1989 that secured the initial funding for the highway. "With all due respect to the (former) governor, the West Valley Highway wouldn't have gotten started without Dix," Black said.
Black's bill doesn't expound on McMullin's contribution. It simply establishes U-154 as Dix H. McMullin Highway and directs the Utah Department of Transportation identify the road as such on all future road maps.
Asked his opinion on the matter, McMullin, now a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, said he was honored by Black's bill and jokingly suggested a compromise: "The Bangerter-McMullin Highway."
And the former governor said: "Just build it."
With both nominees ambivalent about what the road is called but equal in their contribution to paving the West Valley Highway, political strategy most likely will win out.
Atkinson's resolution amounts to a recommendation for transportation commissioners to consider, while Black's proposal would sidestep the commission and make his name change law.
"Don't tell him (Atkinson) that," Black said.
But Atkinson believes Black's strategy is doomed.
"It won't go anywhere. It's bad public policy to make laws naming highways and buildings," Atkinson said.