Utah transportation officials fear a proposed six-year federal highway-spending bill will siphon money from new roads in growing states like Utah and reward transit systems instead.

They also worry the proposed Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2009 puts more authority in federal hands.

"They're talking about a much bigger percentage growth in transit than roads," said Carlos Braceras, deputy director of the Utah Department of Transportation. The bill also sets broad federal goals for the program, which Braceras said bucks 50 years of state guidance.

The Utah Transportation Commission voted last week to write a letter opposing that direction to the bill's sponsor, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The commissioners said that even as Utah's transit grid thrives, the state's population continues to spread and needs new roads.

"I'm also in favor of transit," said Commissioner Meghan Holbrook, who represents Salt Lake County, "but in reality we have to be very much in favor of roads."

The last transportation reauthorization, six years ago, steered about 82 percent of federal dollars to highways and 18 percent to mass transit. The new bill would make the split about 78-22, although both would get tens of billions more than last time. Another $50 billion would go to several planned intercity high-speed rail lines, using a new federal "infrastructure bank."

Backers of the $500 billion bill say it's about time the federal government start setting funding priorities.

"It's about the federal government getting smarter," said Robert Puentes, a transportation analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "We've had this blank-check approach for far too long."

The Oberstar bill doesn't cheat roads, Puentes argues, but it does set goals for them. It pumps $100 billion into restoring roads, recognizing that more than a third of the nation's highway lane miles are rated in poor to fair condition and one of every four bridges is structurally deficient.

The measure also would push $50 billion to metropolitan planning organizations, such as the Wasatch Front Regional Council, to address congestion. This increases local control, Puentes said, by letting those officials decide which modes work for them.

Utah's reluctance to embrace more transit money puzzles him. The Wasatch Front's train system is growing, he noted, and he believes it makes no sense, at a national level, to fight carbon emissions with energy policy while ignoring them in transportation policy.

The Utah Transit Authority finds the bill a possible upgrade because it streamlines the grant process for new projects, spokesman Gerry Carpenter said Tuesday, although it's too early in the legislative process to comment on details.

"UTA will support any bill that appropriately promotes increased investment in transit," he said.

UTA is building or planning 70 miles of new rail by 2015 -- light rail to Draper, South Jordan, West Valley City and the Salt Lake City International Airport, and commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Provo -- though most of the funding is local. Of that $2.4 billion investment, federal authorities have committed $427 million for the Mid-Jordan line and are considering a request for $143 million for the Draper spur.

A staffer on Oberstar's committee said states will get more oversight but also more flexibility if the bill passes. The current system directs money to 108 rigid funding streams, and states must build highways that match a specific fund's purpose. Under the new system, according to committee spokesman James Bedard, a state or metropolitan planning organization could apply for one grant to add lanes, transit or other solutions in a corridor.

"It'll be more results-oriented: 'What's our problem, and how do we fix it?' " Bedard said, "as opposed to, 'How much money do we have in each program?' "

The committee's proposal unapologetically boosts transit, and Bedard maintains it will help the West as well as the established transit systems in larger Eastern cities.

"There aren't a lot of subways in rural Utah. I know that," he said. "But there is transit in Salt Lake City, maybe Provo, Ogden, St. George. We're facing a time when gas prices are going up, and with greenhouse gas [emissions], people are going to want to drive less. Where those options can be made available, we want to make them available."

The bill still needs a funding source. Bedard said current federal gas taxes would cover just $324 billion over six years. Ideas include a tax on speculative oil trading, a price-linked gas tax instead of a static tax per gallon, or a tax on miles traveled.

bloomis@sltrib.com