That's what it's all about, really, this idea of putting an $895 million bond issue before Salt Lake County voters in November to build four new TRAX light rail lines sooner rather than later.
If the trains are going to run anytime soon, meaning by 2015 instead of 2030, taxpayers will have to pony up the money. That's why we believe the Salt Lake County Council, of which Horiuchi is a member, made the right call Tuesday when it voted to let the people decide in the voting booth whether to raise their property taxes to get trains on tracks quicker.
A Salt Lake Tribune poll last month showed that the proposal has the support of about 60 percent of county voters. That support is bipartisan and solid across the generations. We think that is because Utahns have wrinkled their noses at the murk that passes for air in this valley, winced at their longer hours stuck in automobile traffic, and have decided that something must be done now.
There doesn't seem to be much debate that TRAX is part of the answer. What remains up for argument is the best way to finance an accelerated program to build new lines to South Jordan, West Valley, Draper and the airport.
The bond issue that the council has approved for the ballot in concept would be financed by a property tax increase. The Salt Lake Chamber's transportation alliance doesn't like that, and is pushing instead for the Legislature to give counties the power to let voters approve an increase in the Utah Transit Authority sales tax to 1 percent. Currently, that tax is half that much in Davis and Weber counties, 7/16 percent in Salt Lake County and a meager .25 percent in most of Utah County.
But the Legislature has balked at a special session to get that done in a single day, which is wise. That means the earliest it could act is next year, with a ballot measure to follow in 2008.
The property tax plan, by contrast, would save a year's time. It should be structured so that the bonds can be issued in increments as needed. If the sales-tax plan materializes later, the balance of the bonds backed by the property tax could simply not be issued.
The important thing is to get going.
