WASHINGTON -- Rep. Merrill Cook says it was a "no brainer" decision, even if it may hurt the embattled west-east light rail project in Salt Lake City.
"We were told in staff conversations with the appropriations committee that if we continued to push to remove language (banning west-east light rail funding), it would put in jeopardy the funding for $75 million for other Olympic projects," said Andrew Nannis, Cook's spokesman."So it's a no-brainer," he said about the Utah Republican's decision to end that particular battle to remove a total funding ban for the project.
But other opportunities exist to remove the language later in the legislative process.
Committee members earlier explained to the Deseret News that they oppose the project because they doubt it can be completed before the 2002 Winter Olympics. They also feel it has marginal value and that local governments are unwilling to pay as much as those in other states for similar projects.
For such reasons, they not only declined to appropriate any funds for it in committee but took the highly unusual step of adding wording to ban shifting any other federal funds to it.
Cook, who is not on the appropriations committee but sits on the Transportation Committee that decides which projects are eligible for funding, had been working hard to try to strip the negative language as the bill reaches the full House.
Nannis said Cook stopped on Tuesday after the ultimatum.
"You just can't gamble the $75 million for the other projects," Nannis said. Such money ranges from funds for new buses to park-and-ride lots and "intelligent transportation systems" to warn drivers of problems and possible detours.
The fight is not over, however, for the west-east line that would run between Salt Lake International Airport and the University of Utah.
Attention now shifts to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is a member. Bennett is on track to gain about $20 million for the project in the Senate version and has hopes to increase it.
In recent years, congressional support for Utah transit projects has been stronger in the Senate than the House.
Bennett hopes to convince a House-Senate conference that works out differences in similar bills passed by the two bodies that the project merits funding. But the House wording makes that more difficult, if not a long shot.
Among other objections House appropriators voiced to the west-east project is that they question its political support in Utah. And Cook was among politicians who recently called for a voter referendum on it to measure support.
Cook recently said he didn't do that to try to slow the project but said he knew of appropriators' concerns and wanted to find a way to show overall support for it. He also says he explained that to appropriators.
The state Legislature this year committed $5 million annually for up to 10 years to cover operating costs.
Mike Allegra, UTA's director of transit development, said the agency could build the airport-to-university line and have it running before the Games.
"It all depends on how much (federal funding) we get and the conditions attached to it," Allegra said Wednesday. "If funding shortfalls are there, we would look at phasing the project.
"This is an excellent project. It fits the needs of the Wasatch Front very, very well. It's a superb tie-in to the north-south line, between the residential areas in the south and employment areas in the north, west and east."
Deseret News staff writer Zack Van Eyck contributed to this story.