This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Supporters of a quarter-cent transportation tax are lamenting the loss of a funding source that could have helped keep Davis County mobile and economically solvent.
On Tuesday, 58 percent of the county's voters said no to the proposed sales tax that would have been earmarked for transportation improvements: widening Sunset's 1800 North, from Main Street to 2000 West; preserving the North Legacy highway corridor; and upgrading Layton's south Interstate 15 interchange.
A similar measure garnered 50.4 percent of the Weber County vote - still too slim to call a win until provisional ballots get counted. But in Box Elder County, the vision of commuter rail reaching Brigham City energized a robust 68 percent victory.
"We had our heads handed to us in Davis County," said Steve Handy, an Exoro Group consultant hired to promote the tax by the Northern Utah Transportation Alliance.
In a year where property taxes spiked in some areas of the county, Handy viewed the rejection as a protest vote.
"People know there's a growing transportation crisis that's worsening every day," Handy said. "But we got caught up in the property-tax mess and they said, 'Heck no. No more taxes.' "
A favorable vote would have meant a little pain now for considerable gain later, Handy reasoned, saying the extra tax would have cost the average family about $8 a month or $100 a year.
Bountiful resident Ronald Mortensen, co-founder of CitizensForTaxFairness.org, applauded the statement Davis County voters sent by way of the ballot box.
"I'm glad taxpayers out here recognized that [transportation] has traditionally been a state responsibility," Mortensen said. "The state is sitting on a huge surplus, and at a time of property-tax increases, we're not going to fund these things."
The Legislature should address the problem, he says, and make the state pay rather than push it down to the county level.
Donald Bell, a resident of Weber County's Huntsville, agrees.
After property taxes in his small town recently skyrocketed, the retired fighter pilot formed a grass-roots organization called Wingmen for Property Tax Reform.
"They've passed several sales-tax increases, and this one has no end date," Bell said. "It flies in the face of good sense and human dignity to pay for something forever."
John Pitt, who chairs the Davis County Chamber of Commerce, views Tuesday's vote as a missed opportunity.
"We're disappointed it didn't carry here," Pitt said. "But the real disappointment will be to the Davis County community as they see transportation funding going to other areas - even though we had a more critical need."