And while the notion of toll roads is a contentious concept for many state residents, Herbert pointed out a truth often forgotten: All roads have a price tag.

"It just depends on how you extract it from the populace," he said Wednesday during a Mountain View Corridor meeting at the E Center.

But after the Utah Department of Transportation's Mountain View Project Director Teri Newell told the group that no decisions have been made on whether to make the highway a toll route, Sen. Ed Mayne jumped in, calling the assertion "bs."

"If tolling is [a] final, final option, then we need to look at it," said Mayne, a Democrat from West Valley City. But he told transportation officials, "you should be looking at [other toll roads] before you stick it to the west side of Salt Lake County."

Envision Utah, a nonprofit community planning group, invited about 75 state and local officials and representatives from conservation groups and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the meeting. Community forums will be held in about a month to keep interested parties informed about Mountain View Corridor planning and the environmental impact statement scheduled for completion late next year.

Six roadways - two in Salt Lake County and four in Utah County - have been identified as candidates for rebuilding as the Mountain View highway. But how to pay for the project is uncertain because UDOT already estimates there are more than $16.5 billion in unmet construction and maintenance needs.

That's why officials are considering whether to charge tolls on Mountain View. A bill passed during this year's legislative session set up how private investors could contract with the state to build roads in exchange for charging tolls to recoup their investment. The state would retain ownership of the road and could resume control when the contract expires.

While no highway project was named in the bill, SB80, its sponsor, Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, and others said Mountain View is the likely first candidate because as a toll road, construction could begin by 2009; without tolls, the project could be delayed for decades or never built at all.

Carlos Braceras, UDOT deputy director, explained that the possibility of tolling must be included in the Mountain View environmental study for it to be an option. Whatever the study's results, without tolls Mountain View would be competing for scarce funds against higher-priority projects, including an overhaul of Interstate 15 in Utah and Washington counties.

"I can tell you we will be bringing forth tolling as an option [on other projects]," Braceras said. "Unfortunately, someone has to be first."

Mayne, still fuming when he left what he called "a whole room full of bs-ers," said he didn't know why the state couldn't reconsider the 14-mile Legacy Parkway, designed to alleviate I-15 traffic congestion through south Davis County, as a pay road.

"That's really a perfect route for a toll," he said.