Utah proponents of public transit, hoping for increased funding in the not-too-distant future, had to be encouraged by the way voters responded to transit-related election issues across the country in November.
Of the 30 ballot initiatives, bond issues, referendums, tax increases or other transit-related questions posed to voters in the Nov. 2 election, 22 of them were approved.
The Center for Transportation Excellence reported those approvals are worth an estimated total of more than $40 billion.
The winning measures include a long-term plan for transit expansion in Denver that calls for new light-rail mass transit lines and a Bus Rapid Transit system; light rail construction and bus system improvements in Phoenix, worth $16 billion; and a tax increase to keep buses running at current operating levels in Spokane, Wash.
"This has been a record year for transit initiatives," Stephanie Vance, program manager for the Center for Transportation Excellence, said in a recent edition of Passenger Transport. "We've seen a significant jump in the number of transit initiatives on the ballot and in how many passed.
"Citizens across the country, regardless of party, strongly support transit investments and more transportation choices."
Another 21 transit initiatives were on ballots in August or other special-election dates during the year and 17 of those also were approved.
"From suburban to urban to rural communities, the success of these initiatives proves that people are willing to invest in quality transit services that will pay dividends for years to come," American Public Transportation Association president William Millar told Passenger Transport.
"Voters clearly said that they deserve a better quality of life that available public transportation brings — namely, less congestion, cleaner air and access to jobs."
The same rhetoric is being bandied about here in Utah as transit supporters eye a possible ballot measure in 2006. The minimum they are likely to seek is an across-the-board equalization in the sales tax support the Utah Transit Authority currently receives.
Thanks to a successful ballot measure in 2000, UTA's sales tax revenue increased from a quarter of a cent in Salt Lake County to 7/16 of a cent. (A quarter of that quarter-cent increase in 2000 was reserved for road construction projects.)
But in Weber County, residents already contribute a full half-cent in sales tax revenue. And in the Utah County locales served by UTA, only a quarter cent of sales tax is dedicated for use by the agency.
The Wasatch Front Regional Council, the metropolitan planning organization for all the Wasatch Front counties except Utah County, recommended in October a number of tax and fee hikes to fund future transportation projects. Among them was a suggestion that UTA's sales tax share be increased to a uniform half cent throughout its service area.
It also recommended increasing property taxes by .0012 in UTA's service area to fund general obligation bonds, which UTA general manager John Inglish said would give his agency greater ability to construct planned light rail extensions and a commuter rail network between Provo and Ogden.
"If we get funding in 2006, then we will go all out to build all of those things we've talked about in the next 10 years. It's doable," Inglish said. "If we do it with the resources we have, then it's going to be a slow, painful process."
Several of the ballot measures passed in November are similar to what UTA and its supporters could be looking for in 2006:
Voters in San Mateo County, Calif., approved a half-cent sales tax increase, 30 percent of which will go to transit projects.
Voters in Sacramento, Calif., agreed to extend a half-cent sales tax for transit and road improvements, which was scheduled to expire in 2009.
Lexington, Ky., voters approved $6 million in property tax increases to fund transit expansions.
Voters in Charleston, S.C., and Port Huron, Mich., also approved sales tax increases to fund public transit, and Branson, Mo., residents did likewise in August.
The growing tide of support for transit in the United States is something Inglish has seen, in microcosm, here in Utah. UTA's TRAX light rail system, which opened five years ago, was not universally accepted. Salt Lake County voters, in fact, rejected a tax increase in 1992 that would have given only partial funding to light rail (but it was that association that doomed the initiative).
"Certainly, over a couple of years, communities that had been opposed to us — in fact, passed resolutions opposed to what we were doing in the early '90s — became advocates, and in fact began looking for funding to move their projects along," Inglish said of current plans for light rail extensions in the Salt Lake Valley. "And that's the process we're going through right now."
It's a process that could be advanced or hindered by local voters two years from now.
E-mail: zman@desnews.com