The Utah Transit Authority is proceeding with plans to build a 16-mile commuter rail line from suburban Sandy into downtown Salt Lake City despite claims the $294 million project might bankrupt the agency.
Light rail may not be the only answer, but it is an answer, said Karen Mayne, a UTA board member from West Valley City who noted her traffic-hampered part of Salt Lake County in 1992 voted 2-1 against a sales tax to pay for the project.Mayne, nonetheless, voted yes Wednesday in joining a UTA board majority that opted to let light rail proceed.
The board's endorsement - in the form of a proposed contract with the federal government - means UTA could break ground by fall 1996. It marks the latest step in the agency's steady press to build the train line, which would be the first of its kind in Utah and complement UTA's fleet of 500 buses.
Members before Wednesday's 12-2 decision hotly debated the prudence of the commitment, however, because it would require UTA to pay 20 percent of project costs, or about $59 million, which is about $9 million more than the agency's annual operating budget.
"I think it's a breach of our public trust to gamble on this kind of financial risk," said Dan Berman, one of just two dissenting directors.
Berman, a Salt Lake attorney, said the contract UTA is arranging with the federal government puts the onus on the transit authority to build light rail without getting any firm assurance Congress will cover its end of the bargain.
"It's the worst kind of public policy. . . . We're exceeding the assets of the entire entity," said Berman, who cautioned that today's Washington is not the pork-barrel beast of yesteryear.
"In case somebody hasn't noticed, things are not the same. There is change in this country," he said.
"We are in a state of revolution almost," added Sam Taylor, the other UTA director who voted no, explaining his opposition was rooted partly out of concern for the ever-expanding federal deficit.
"It is not free," said Taylor. "We are paying for it right here in Utah."
The remaining dozen members stood fast, however, insisting their support for light rail comes after lengthy consideration and during a time in which air-pollution in urban Utah is a growing concern and traffic along I-15, the state's most important transportation corridor, creeps toward gridlock.
"It's not an irresponsible decision. . . . I believe it's the best thing," said Greg W. Haws, a director from Weber County who hailed light rail as "a new era of public transport."
"Twenty years from now I don't want my grandchildren saying to me, `Gee, Gramps, the freeways are all screwed up,' " said Jim Clark, a director from Davis County, another fast-growing area that has serious rush-hour trouble along I-15.
Clark conceded that the railroad might not help his constituency, but he alluded to UTA light-rail promotions that bill the Sandy-Salt Lake line as the seed of regional commuter-train service up and down the Wasatch Front.
"I look forward to the time when we have light rail from Logan to Springville," Clark said.
"We cannot build enough freeways," added Richard Jackson, another board member. "Somebody has to demonstrate some leadership."
Acknowledging an argument sounded by opponents in recent weeks, Jackson said the proposed agreement with Washington does not mean UTA will be forced to build the project at its own expense should Congress fail to fund most of the costs.
"I doubt they're going to make us build it, because it's not for them, it's for us."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The funding
Where UTA plans to get the $294 million to build a mass-transit light-rail line from Sandy to downtown Salt Lake City:
- $29 million, local bond issue
- $21 million, UTA savings
- $1.65 million, surplus UTA land sales
- $7.5 million, annual UTA revenue over the course of five years
- $235 million, federal grants