In fact, they will be voting blind.

A plan to outline before the Nov. 7 election which projects would be funded by the tax was scrapped this week after state lawmakers plucked the item from a meeting agenda.

The move means voters curious about which TRAX routes, roads and commuter rail their dollars could buy will be left in the dark.

Hearing the news late Tuesday at a council meeting, County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson reacted with disgust.

"We're done, we're done," she fumed, standing up from a conference table palms pointing outward. "We have an obligation to let people know what will be built."

Councilman Joe Hatch, who voted for the sales tax measure through early voting Tuesday, said his decision may have changed had he known.

"I'm furious," he said, leaving the County Government Center. "This is such a big issue and such a big disappointment. It's upsetting enough that I'm not going to campaign for it."

A week and a half ago, the County Council and Council of Governments decided how to weigh transportation spending criteria imposed in the law the Legislature passed during a Sept. 19 special session.

The law requires the county to get legislative approval of the criteria list. After that, county leaders are free to rank transit and transportation projects according to the criteria.

County officials hoped to get quick approval from the Executive Appropriations Committee so they could include a list of priorities in a voter information pamphlet for the Nov. 7 election.

Executive Appropriations declined to place the county plan on its Oct. 17 agenda because some thought the county was moving too fast, said committee co-chairman Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan.

"I asked to have it on," Hillyard said. "But there were some concerns . . . raised by others in leadership whether we wanted to take time to deal with it that day."

Chris Bleak, spokesman for House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said lawmakers wanted to make sure priorities and projects are "done right."

Bleak said there was no need to rush project rankings, which could have had the unintended consequence of turning off voters whose pet projects weren't high on the list. Much better, he said, is to campaign for the tax as something for the common good and ask voters to trust their leaders to make good decisions.

"It doesn't need to be a Christmas tree, 'Oh, what did I get?' " he said.

Transportation and transit projects to be funded by a proposed quarter-cent sales tax increase would be ranked according to importance, with easing snarled traffic at the top of the list, county officials have decided.

If the measure passes, Salt Lake County will raise about $50 million annually with the new tax.

A quarter of those revenues would be earmarked for buying land for major highway projects, most likely the planned west-side Mountain View Corridor.

The other 75 percent of the new tax revenues would be spent on transit or roads.

County officials expected Executive Appropriations to approve their criteria list at its meeting next week and planned to get right into ranking projects the next day.

West Valley City Mayor Dennis Nordfelt tried to persuade the appropriations committee to meet earlier. COG and the County Council had planned to rank projects Oct. 5, but canceled that meeting when lawmakers wouldn't convene an emergency session.

The sales tax measure is replacing an earlier ballot question that would have raised $895 million in property tax to complete four TRAX lines - to West Valley City, West Jordan-South Jordan, Draper and Salt Lake City International Airport - by 2014 instead of 2030 or even later. Despite polls showing a majority of support, dislike of property taxes drove the Legislature's decision to shift to the sales tax measure in a special session.

Looking back, Wilson waxed nostalgic on the former funding model.

"The beauty of the property tax was it outlined four TRAX lines," she said. "Now, we don't know what we're getting."

Utah Transit Authority spokesman Justin Jones said his agency was optimistic voters would understand the need for the tax hike.

"The voters understand they need help with congestion, whether it's transit or transportation," he said. If they do, he added, "we'll be able to move several projects ahead of schedule."

The County Council got word next week's meeting was off moments after tweaking transportation language on Proposition 3 for a voter-information pamphlet.

An early version of the pamphlet included 33 possible projects for the sales tax measure. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon called the list "completely misleading" and the council expunged it Tuesday.

Councilman Mark Crockett also insisted that language claiming the sales tax will allow for the "completion" of commuter rail, light rail and other transportation projects be softened to say that it might do so.

"That would be a little more honest," he said.

But despite the effort to edify voters, ballot language for Proposition 3 - and the lack of a project list - may leave more questions than answers.

djensen@sltrib.com

phenetz@sltrib.com

"We're done, we're done. We have an obligation to let people know what will be built."

JENNY WILSON

Salt Lake County councilwoman

Disgusted