Well, sort of.

After a vigorous debate, a split Salt Lake County Council voted Tuesday to add two pages of potential transportation projects to a voter information pamphlet expected in mailboxes by mid-October.

The first version of the pamphlet didn't include a word about rails or roads. The transportation measure is considered the big-ticket item on the Nov. 7 ballot.

But the amended version - Councilman Randy Horiuchi pressed for the extra pages - comes with a considerable caveat: It won't include specific routes since state and county leaders have yet to select them.

"We don't know what the projects are," cautioned Councilman Mark Crockett, who voted against the move he called misleading. "I'm concerned about the level of specificity."

A meeting planned this week to assign priority to each project - which could determine which of four proposed TRAX extensions makes the cut - has been postponed until Oct. 18, less than three weeks before the election.

To do a pamphlet then would be too late, attorneys noted.

Still, Horiuchi argued it is the county's responsibility to disseminate whatever detail it can since it is the agent authorizing the sales tax.

"The Legislature has foisted a whole new process on us," Horiuchi said, referring to state lawmakers' swap of property taxes for sales taxes to fund the transportation upgrades. "We ought to explain what that process is."

But Councilwoman Jenny Wilson worries voters won't have anything definitive before they hit the polls.

"When they get the pamphlet, they're going to want to have their questions answered," she said before voting against the move.

Attorneys for the council explained they left transportation items off the mailer, thinking that effort would be handled by the Utah Transit Authority.

"I was told UTA was going to do their own," Jon Bronson, the council's bond counsel, told the group.

But Horiuchi and others fear a pamphlet issued by UTA would be seen as biased and border on county advocacy.

In the end, the council voted 6-3 to add transportation details - such as they are - and a map, but not before some maneuvering. Members first voted 5-4 against, but then several switched sides.

They were scolded by Council Chairman Cort Ashton.

"Since when do we change our votes based on how our colleagues vote?" Ashton asked.

A second part of the motion stripped images from the information pamphlet that depicted Zoo, Arts and Parks projects after an attorney warned it was turning into "an advocacy piece."

djensen@sltrib.com