An agreement to federally fund a light-rail mass transit system for the Wasatch Front at 80 percent is an important step forward.
But it is still not a sure thing, cautioned Gov. Mike Leavitt, who helped broker the agreement earlier this week with Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and chairman of the Transportation Appropriation Committee."There are still a lot of questions to be answered," Leavitt said. Among them is whether federal funding will pour into the project for rapid completion or whether it will just trickle in a little bit over a long period.
Leavitt and Utah Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, met with Wolf earlier this week to discuss funding of the project. The House had earlier agreed to fund light rail at only 50 percent, whereas the Senate and Department of Transportation had agreed on 80 percent funding.
Wolf apparently agreed to the 80 percent funding level after listening to Leavitt explain how the state is investing billions of dollars of state money over the next 10 years on highway improvements.
At his monthly KUED news conference, Leavitt explained that improvements to I-15 - expected to total more than $1 billion alone - cannot begin until federal environmental officials give the state a certificate indicating the state has an acceptable long-range plan to clean up the air.
Part of Utah's clean air plan hinges on the construction of light rail.
In other words, no light rail means no clean air certificate, and no certificate means no construction on I-15.
Does that mean Leavitt is a light-rail supporter? Not necessarily. But he said no other viable alternatives have been offered that would satisfy the federal clean air requirements, forcing state officials into supporting light rail whether they like it or not.
And the ultimate objective, Leavitt said, is to rebuild I-15 and relieve traffic congestion - something the state cannot do on its own. "It's a federal highway and they control it," he said.
Leavitt hopes to get the clean air certificate by October and begin I-15 construction immediately thereafter.
Leavitt was also optimistic that I-15 could be renovated with 50 percent federal funds, but he acknowledged "there is precious little highway money right now," and federal participation in that project is "not a cinch."
On other issues, Leavitt told reporters that a recent U.S.
Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the civil rights of gays and lesbians will have no effect on a recently passed state law that prohibits gay and lesbian student clubs on school campuses.
The Utah law prohibits school clubs that promote bigotry, criminality or human sexuality. That focus, he said, "appears to be a different issue. Our law does not single anyone out."
The governor also expressed support for an Army plan to destroy chemical weapons in Tooele County. Some 42 percent of the army's chemical weapons are stockpiled in earthen bunkers upwind from the Wasatch Front.
"There is a danger to having them sit there perpetually," he said. "I want to get the munitions destroyed."
Leavitt said the state Division of Air Quality has assured him the weapons can be destroyed without endangering citizens downwind.