The poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for KSL-TV and the Deseret Morning News, which reported results in a copyright story Sunday, also found support among Salt Lake County residents for a hike in the sales tax to fund TRAX light-rail extensions and commuter rail.

The tax plan is being pushed by GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman and some Republican legislative leaders. Lawmakers will discuss the tax-reform with a tax-cut plan and the mass-transit proposal in party caucuses in early September.

If most GOP lawmakers can agree on the plans, Huntsman may call a special session in mid-September.

The survey of 420 residents statewide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, found 41 percent favored the dual-track proposal, 36 percent were against it and 23 percent didn't know.

Under the plan, each taxpayer could choose whether to continue using the current system or opt for a reduced tax rate but with no deductions.

The plan could include a $70 million or $160 million tax cut.

The survey found that 33 percent of the respondents want the $70 million cut, 18 percent want a $122 million cut and 42 percent said not to cut income taxes at all. The rest didn't know.

The survey also found that 59 percent of the respondents want the issue handled in the regular session, while 33 percent favor a special session.

The pollsters asked 168 Salt Lake County residents, for a margin of error of plus or minus 7.6 percentage points, whether they favored hiking the sales tax in the county to pay for extensions of the current TRAX light rail system and building 30 miles of a commuter rail system from The Gateway to the county's southern border with Utah County.

Already, the Salt Lake County Council has put on the November ballot, for voter consideration, a general obligation property tax bond of nearly $900 million for mass transit in the county. The council doesn't have the authority to let voters increase sales taxes. Only the Legislature can do that. And GOP and many business leaders say if some tax is going to be raised for mass transit, they prefer it be the sales, not the property, tax.

The sales tax would put more of the tax burden on residents instead of businesses.

Fifty-seven percent of the county residents said they favor raising the sales tax, 41 percent were against and the rest had no opinion.