There's no question that the highway, which would extend from I-80 in western Salt Lake City to Utah County between Bangerter Highway (on the east) and State Road 111 (on the west), is of critical importance, particularly as home building booms on Salt Lake County's west side.

We agree that it would not be equitable to toll this project when no other major highway in the state has been funded that way and taxpayers on the west side have contributed their share to the I-15 rebuild and other major state projects.

But that's the point. Mountain View is of regional and statewide importance. It will not be just a Salt Lake County highway. So we are concerned that legislators are busy earmarking Salt Lake County transportation sales taxes as a funding source for the highway, particularly in the absence of a statewide fuel tax increase to meet the shortage of funds for statewide projects.

We believe that the net effect could be that Salt Lake County taxpayers could end up footing most of the bill for what is a major statewide project.

In addition, without a statewide fuel tax increase, and in the absence of local government control over what amount to local-option sales taxes for transportation, Salt Lake County may end up being unable to finance other top-priority projects, particularly east-west routes that also will be critical to the west side's future.

HB158 would channel three county transportation revenue streams to Mountain View. One is a $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee that, under state law, had been reserved for corridor preservation. A second is the 0.25 percent sales tax that goes mostly to transit. A quarter of that levy now goes to pay off bonds that helped finance the I-15 rebuild. Once those bonds are retired, the money will go to Mountain View.

The third source is 25 percent of the 0.25 percent sales tax increase that Salt Lake County voters approved as Proposition 3 last fall. Most of that goes to transit, but the Legislature required that a quarter of those revenues also go to Mountain View.

The bill would allow $300 million in bonding against those revenues to help build the highway.

That's a lot of eggs in one basket, and Salt Lake County officials, to say nothing of voters, get no say in the matter.