Two weeks after voting to put a quarter-cent sales tax for roads on the Nov. 2 ballot, Utah County commissioners decided 2-1 to take it off - until at least 2005.
"To approve [taking this off the ballot], we're just the John Kerry commission, is what we are," complained Commissioner Jerry Grover in opposing the commission's flip-flop on the issue.
The vote came after a Friday meeting with Utah County legislators, who pledged to find funds to ease Utah County's transportation woes in the 2005 Legislature and asked county leaders to yank the road tax from the ballot.
"You've given the Utah County delegation [of state lawmakers] a wake-up call," Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told commissioners Tuesday. "You've given us the impetus to make something happen in the Legislature."
Stephenson also heads the Utah Taxpayers Association, a business-backed group that traditionally balks at tax hikes.
Commissioner Steve White said he initially voted with Grover to put the tax on the ballot two weeks ago to "keep the hammer" on legislators to do something about Utah County's jammed roads. Currently, there is no new money to fix state roads until 2020.
"They've now committed to fulfill their . . . responsibility to fix the funding problem," White said about his about-face on the issue.
The quarter-cent tax the county initially placed on the ballot would have generated - with voter approval - an estimated $12 million a year, money that would have been spent on several projects on a list of 27 state roads in Utah County.
In deciding to take the tax off the ballot, White argued there was not enough money to educate voters about the issue. He said the $100,000 that the Mountainland Association of Governments set aside for a voter-education campaign was for a tax that included a transit component. The county's proposal was for a road-only tax.
"We can't even utilize any of that money on the education of the public to let them know what the real issue is . . . because of the way it was funded in the budget," White said.
Grover said to delay putting the issue to voters in 2005 would cost the county more money and lead to a lower voter turnout than if it were on the ballot during a presidential election year.
meddington@sltrib.com
