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Lawmakers on the Utah Legislature's water task force are recommending that their colleagues consider earmarking 15 percent of future growth in state sales-tax revenues for a water development fund that would finance a Lake Powell pipeline to St. George.
It is a move that opponents — including environmentalists, a smart-growth coalition and advocates for the poor and disabled — argued would team with a previously approved roads earmark and restrict the state's ability to cover education and other services as the population grows.
The money, $50 million or more from taxpayers statewide starting in 2014, would go into a revolving loan fund that would enable the Washington County Water Conservancy District's $1 billion-plus plan for 100,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water from Lake Powell. The district says it can repay that money through fees on future home construction, restocking the fund for other water projects statewide.
Rapid population growth and a potential doubling of Utah's population by mid-century require bold action, the measure's backers said.
"We have to put as much infrastructure in the ground in the next 20 years as we have in the last 150," said Rep. Patrick Painter, R-Nephi, House chairman of the Water Issues Task Force.
Assuming new residents and a recharged economy will boost sales within the state, the proposal could mean a major project gets a boost without the need for increasing tax rates. But advocates who spoke at the Capitol hearing said doing so at the expense of general-fund revenues will limit the other ways Utah will have to adapt to serve a growing population. The Legislature already has set aside 30 percent of the growth in sales taxes for road projects.
Steve Erickson of the Great Basin Water Network said if 45 percent of the growth in statewide tax receipts is earmarked for roads and water, schools will suffer. It's not free money just because it comes out of the growth in the tax base, he said.
"That future growth comes with obligations," he said, "including educating our children."
Zach Frankel of the Utah Rivers Council said Washington County can conserve more of its water to bring down the costs of development. Though the water district's manager, Ron Thompson, told lawmakers that St. George can't meet its growing needs that way, Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, said he will need more information about per-capita water consumption around the Southwest before he can support the plan.
Thompson acknowledged that St. George residents use more water than their counterparts in Tucson, but said the climates are different. Tucson gets more monsoonal rains.
Others who testified said the district hasn't presented the sort of detailed business plan, with contingencies for repayment if housing construction doesn't boom, that a bank would require. The state should be sure Washington County can make good on the loan before it commits tax dollars, said Christi Nuffer administrator of Citizens for Dixie's Future.
"We're not doing this in the Old West, on a handshake," she said.
Barbara Toomer, of the Disability Rights Action Committee, said the plan puts at risk social services for which the state likely will have a larger tab as federal budgets shrink, and that could precipitate a sales tax increase, which those on limited incomes can't afford.
Linda Hilton of Crossroads Urban Center reiterated the point, saying lawmakers are asking poor people like those that her center feeds to pay for southern Utah's growth plans.
"These people are living on the edge," she said.
Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, dismissed complaints about a statewide tax to help one region. He said the Wasatch Front has received such help many times, including with a gas tax that funded transportation projects before the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Washington County residents will repay the money, he said, and then others in the state can use it. Besides, he said, many Utahns vacation and golf in Washington County.
"Where do you think the water comes from to flush those toilets and water those lawns?" he asked.
Painter has pitched a series of state bonds that would cover $30 million a year in design work during 2014 and 2015, then $370 million a year for construction in the following three years. The state tax revenue would cover those bonds while Washington County waited on future housing growth to help repay the state.
The task force voted 7-1 to recommend that the full Legislature review the idea, with Rep. Susan Duckworth, D-Magna, voting against it. McAdams was absent by the time of the vote.