The Salt Lake County Council and the County Association of Governments at the hearing will debate a list of proposed spending criteria that will be assigned "weighted" importance. The action is required under a bill passed last week during a special session of the Legislature.

The Association of Governments moved quickly to create the list, which must be approved by the legislative Executive Appropriations Committee, because elected officials want to be able to tell voters what they're buying before their vote.

"We knew we didn't have much time," said Draper Mayor Darrell Smith, the association's chairman. "Here we are now, trying to get ready for an election, trying to get information out to the citizens . . . so they have somewhat of an understanding of what the options are."

The sales tax measure is replacing an earlier ballot question that would have raised $895 million in property tax to complete four TRAX lines by 2014 instead of 2030 or even later. Dislike of property taxes drove the Legislature's decision to take up the sales tax measure in a special session.

An estimated $100 million per year could be raised if all the state's counties passed the measure, which isn't assured. Salt Lake County could raise just under $50 million of the total each year.

The Executive Appropriations Committee isn't scheduled to meet until Oct. 17, just three weeks before the Nov. 7 election. But West Valley City Mayor Dennis Nordfelt, who helped create the tentative criteria, said there was no reason the Executive Appropriations Committee couldn't meet before Oct. 17.

Nordfelt said the state is breaking new ground with the sales tax proposal.

"We have never prioritized highway projects and transit projects using the same mechanisms. Neither has anyone else," he said. "That's because the funding mechanisms are usually completely separate."

And for good reason. Trying to weigh transit projects against major highways is a classic example of comparing apples to oranges, he said.

"It's really hard to come up with a process that is fair and objective," Nordfelt said. "We're going to have to exercise some judgment here."

Public hearing

The Salt Lake County Council and the Salt Lake County Association of Governments will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. Thursday in Room W135 at the Capitol about a quarter-cent sales tax increase proposal on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The discussion will include how to weigh costs and benefits of projects, travel time saved by a proposed project, employment by project, sustainability and environmental effects. After the public hearing, the elected officials will assign numerical weights to the criteria, which they will in turn apply to projects when making a list of priorities. The action is a requirement of a bill the Legislature passed during a special session last week.