A sales tax hike just passed by Salt Lake and Tooele counties will help improve bus service, but it’s far from enough to build future hoped-for rail expansions and other major projects, Utah Transit Authority officials told state lawmakers Wednesday.
In short, they say they still need more money for the sort of system envisioned in long-term plans with more TRAX lines, double-tracked and electrified FrontRunner trains and 200 more miles of so-far-unfunded bus rapid transit.
UTA promised legislators that all of its share of the just-approved tax increase will go to improve services — and is not needed to keep up payments on its $2.1 billion debt incurred to build TRAX, FrontRunner and streetcar lines in recent years.
The Legislature’s Interim Transportation Committee sought such information Wednesday because, as its House chairman, Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, said, UTA now spends about $85 million a year in interest on its debts, “which is almost the same as [it spends on] bus service or rail service.”
The discussion came after city councils in Sandy and Draper gave the final approvals needed Tuesday to trigger a $58 million Salt Lake countywide sales tax hike for transit and roads.
The Salt Lake County Council earlier said it would enact the tax if cities representing 67 percent of the county’s population endorsed it. That threshold was met Tuesday after previous approvals by Salt Lake City, Millcreek, Midvale, South Salt Lake, Holladay and South Jordan.
County voters rejected that tax in 2015 as they voted down Proposition 1, largely because of scandals at UTA. However, the Legislature this year allowed counties to enact that tax without voter approval, as part of a larger bill to restructure UTA.
The tax will add 2.5 cents to a $10 purchase (or 0.25 cents per $1).
The county will receive all of the revenue for the first nine months of the new tax — but said it would work with cities to approve how and where it is spent. After that, 40 percent of ongoing revenue would go to UTA, 40 percent to cities and 20 percent to the county.
Also on Tuesday, the Tooele County Commission approved a similar quarter-cent sales tax hike there.
Matt Sibul, UTA governmental affairs director, said the new Salt Lake County tax will provide UTA about $23 million annually. He told lawmakers it will allow improving bus service — including more routes, extra frequency and running more buses at nights and on weekends.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Matt Sibul, governmental affairs director for UTA.
“That’s what we’re hearing that the public wants,” said Steve Meyer, interim executive director of UTA, adding the agency plans to work closely with cities and the public to develop plans for how to use the money.
However, Sibul said, “Can we do rail expansions and bus rapid transit projects with the additional revenues that were realized last night? No, we can’t.”
But he said the new law restructuring his agency, SB136, provides tools that could provide such extra funding. It allows counties to raise taxes even higher for transportation and allows state funds to be used for transit — instead of just for highways.
If they are used in the future along with winning federal grants, “You can start to do some more projects,” Sibul said.
Some such projects, Meyer said, include 200 miles of proposed BRT projects, sort of a “TRAX on rubber wheels” where extra-long buses have their own lane on roads, sell tickets by machine and have the ability to control traffic signals. Meyer said they are efficient and cheaper than TRAX expansions.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) UTA Interim Executive Director Steve Meyer says a few words as South Salt Lake and other dignitaries met together to break ground on construction of UTA’s S-Line double track project, on 300 East and 2233 South, Monday, June 11, 2018.
Another example is improving FrontRunner. It now uses a single track, which limits frequency. Sibul said plans call for having double tracks — to allow trains to more easily pass each other — and electrifying the system, which would improve frequency and lower operation costs.
Amid questions from lawmakers about UTA’s $2.1 billion in debt, Meyer said it comes from what he called wise investments to build rail projects after voter approval.
“We basically took out a mortgage, similar to buying a house,” he said. “So you could enjoy that facility while you are paying for it.”
Bob Biles, UTA vice president of finance, said UTA has carefully planned to ensure that it can cover bond payments without any use of the new tax hikes. He added that UTA believes it can handle regular maintenance and operations without the need of bonds for them.
Sales taxes and federal funding provide the vast majority of UTA’s revenue, with just 14 percent coming from passenger fares.
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