This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The idea of tolling the Mountain View Corridor was dead, at least that's what Riverton Councilman Brad Markus thought.
But it's alive, he and other city leaders learned, and remains very much an option for funding the proposed west-side highway.
"I was surprised," Markus said, "surprised and disappointed."
So he and council members of other Salt Lake Valley cities, fearful that their objections aren't being heard, are banding together to urge municipalities to pass resolutions against the toll-road option.
One vehicle for expressing that opposition - the Association of Municipal Councils - doesn't have much clout, so council members hope to arm their respective mayors with anti-tolling resolutions that they then can wield before the more visible Council of Governments.
"It's a matter of fairness," West Valley City Councilwoman Carolynn Burt said of the tolling issue. "We are trying to get our voices heard so that our COG knows what the councils feel, because we never meet with anybody, and they do."
Draper, Riverton and South Jordan already have passed resolutions against a Mountain View toll.
"Traditionally these roads and the costs of these roads have been spread across the state," South Jordan Councilwoman Leona Winger said, "because the economic development of one area has a positive effect on the entire state."
West-siders point to all the existing roads they helped fund, including the Legacy Parkway, set to open in September. Why, they ask, now that a new highway is coming their way, are planners talking toll road?
A state study found the tolls would pay for about $1.1 billion of Mountain View's $1.8 billion price tag. But council members worry about long-term costs.
They fear some residents may have to cough up $200 a month to use the road. They also worry about fee-dodging commuters bypassing the highway altogether, clogging up and wearing down other routes.
While the Utah Department of Transportation has not selected a toll road as its preferred funding option - it's being considered along with sales or gas taxes and car-registration fees - the council members want to kill the idea for good.
"You need to pay for roads by everybody paying a small amount so nobody has to pay a huge amount," Burt said, later adding with a laugh, "something that gouges everybody equally. Progress costs."