Aug 14
SPECIAL SESSION & TRANSPORTATION NEEDS
2006 at 7:54 am | posted by Rep. Craig Frank 5 comments
Rumors are flying around about whether the Legislature will hold a Special Session to discuss what will happen to the “extra” $355.5 million the Tax Commission announced the state will take-in as new on-going revenues. (Just a quick note. By statute, the Governor is the only individual within the State with the authority to “call” a Special Session.) Also, up for potential discussion would be the $70 million in Tax Reform money left on the table from last General Session already earmarked by the Governor’s office and the House and Senate for some kind of personal income tax reform/cut. As of this moment I’ve heard nothing about a Special Session (I usually find out from the newspaper the same time you do, anyway).
I’ve already shared with you my F4 Plan (see below). As I’ve discussed this plan with a number of my colleagues there seems to be a general interest in the concept; however, there may be a small hole in a bit of my fiscal thinking. However…I’m not blogging today to chat about my hole. I’ll be the first to admit when I see a large chunk of surplus dollars I want to give it back to the people who generated those dollars—the Utah Taxpayer. However, if you’ve studied my F4 Plan you’ll see even I (the fierce tax-cutting advocate that I am) have conceded, I’ve come to the realization it’s time to step back and take a serious look at our critical transportation needs.
Wrong Way – Do Not Enter
The Salt Lake County Council recently approved a ballot measure to add nearly $900,000,000 on the November ballot for hypothetical regional transit needs. The strategy is to have the voters choose which direction they want perceived public transportation needs to move. The cost of this ballot measure per homeowner for a house valued at $200,000 will be approximately $108.00. (Now, you know as well as I do, the average value of a home in Salt Lake County is nowhere near $200,000—who’re they kiddin’?) So, if this ballot measure passes, the average homeowner can expect a sizable increase on their next Property Valuation Notice. Most property owners in Salt Lake County won’t even know what hit ‘em—WHAM! PROPERTY TAX INCREASE. When did that happen?!
That’s how it often happens–the few (voters, non-homeowners) deciding the fiscal long-term fate of the many (non-voters, property owners). I’m not saying this is how it happens all the time—you vote…right?! A “yes” vote means over the next umpteen years, property owners agree to support a government subsidized transit system. How many well-intentioned, yet uninformed, property owners in Salt Lake County ride TRAX, anyhow? (This is not a mind-set exclusive to Salt Lake County Residents, by the way.) As I understand it, you don’t have to own property in Salt Lake County to vote in Salt Lake County (just proof of county residency—you just have to reside, not own).
The Math
When we build freeways moving 150,000+ cars per day (some with multiple passengers) at a cost of $100M/mile and Salt Lake County Council is proposing to build four new TRAX lines at $35M-$55M/mile to move about 5,000 passengers per day—the numbers just don’t make sense. The lion’s share of the costs for building such transit systems will be borne by those who will potentially never step foot on a TRAX train.
With a plethora of other transportation needs it doesn’t make sense (see also, UTA, August Newsletter) to dedicate $900,000,000 for a light rail system with an extremely limited ridership when there are so many other critical transportation needs throughout Salt Lake County and the State (i.e. choke-point relief, corridor preservation and construction, new state and county road construction in highly populated areas with little black-top access, etc.) This approach by the Salt Lake County Council seems reckless and ill-timed. Our state has a menu of high-priority transportation projects deserving far greater immediate attention than the limited transportation needs of a few. We as policy makers need to be careful about how we “encourage” taxpayers to “choose” to spend their limited, strained tax dollar resources on transportation needs. Perhaps there is a better way to finance these four TRAX lines.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
TRAX is actually a winning proposition. It moves 3-4 times as many people per square mile as a highway expansion can, it largely utilizes existing rail corridors (eliminating eminent domain issues), ridership regularly exceeds esitmates, and… it runs in the black. Yep, public transportation that makes money. I guess that makes up for all the red ink that the bus system bleeds.
The existing TRAX lines handle some 60,000 riders a day. I don’t know where your math comes from, but estimating that the new lines will only pull 5,000 passengers a day seems very low. Even if ridership doesn’t increase substantially, existing rail passengers will have less distance to drive including the masses from Utah County. You also discount the secondary benefits of light rail. Prior to TRAX, the U had a horrible parking problem and would have had to spend millions on new garages. With TRAX in place, finding a parking spot is now a piece of cake, a real marvel for any major university. The extension to the airport could have a similar effect and make Salt Lake City more convention-friendly, especially with the commuter rail lines up and running.
Even if we figure that TRAX is only taking about 30,000 cars off I-15, that’s still about 20% of the traffic we see on the freeway. That’s a pretty large dent to make. Your average TRAX rider will also be saving money by hopping the train. Someone going downtown from South Jordan could easily drop about $10 in gas and parking compared to a $3 train ticket.
It’s a false premise (though a widely-believed one) that those who don’t own property are somehow going to have the opportunity to vote away money from property owners. Those renters have to live somewhere, and I don’t think the landlords are just going to eat a property tax increase. Sure, they may not understand fully that they will be paying the increase indirectly through increased rents, but this doesn’t mean they’re pulling a fast one on the rest of us.
The question, of course, is why it is that Salt Lake County is having to resort to a property tax increase. The short answer is a lack of forward-thinking on the part of the various counties and the state legislature. California got caught in that trap in the 60s. Las Vegas learned from it but still ended up behind the curve in this decade. Have we been so oblivious to not see that at the first inklings of rapid growth, immediate action is required? Apparently so.
There’s a record surplus in the legislature at a time where there is a record need for transportation projects, yet instead of using the money to secure transit corridors, the legislature instead chooses to talk about tax refunds. This is happening as construction costs are soaring, especially the price of concrete which has quadrupled in the last decade. The legislature could take decisive action to build transportation projects now and save billions of dollars in future construction costs… but I guess posturing on tax reform and school choice takes top billing these days.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
[...] This is a response to a blog by Rep. Craig Frank. TRAX is actually a winning proposition. It moves 3-4 times as many people per square mile as a highway expansion can, it largely utilizes existing rail corridors (eliminating eminent domain issues), ridership regularly exceeds esitmates, and… it runs in the black. Yep, public transportation that makes money. I guess that makes up for all the red ink that the bus system bleeds. [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Are you serious? You’ve picked a poor measure of efficiency (amount of people moved per square mile). It’s true that rail corridors are narrower than freeway corridors, but if you are concerned about open space, there are more cost effective ways of preserving open space by building rail lines just because the corridors are narrower.
If you are concerned about land acquisition costs, then you must look at total costs, not just the costs of corridors.
The airport line will cost just under $300 million. How much more convention business will we get as a result? If economic growth is the goal, we can spend $300 million more effectively. Also, it’s not hard to get from the airport to downtown and back and won’t be difficult in the next ten or twenty years.
August 24th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Col. Moroni is right. These rail additions are calculated to each impact regional road travel by a few one hundredths on one percent, from 0.03% for Airport and West Valley lines to 0.06% for the two commuter rail lines, by 2025.
Average regional road speed will increase by about 3 one hundredths on one mile per hour by 2025.
Mr. Harris is using junk math and junk data; it is absurd and invalid.
There has been no study to fix the impact of light rail on freeway capacity or flow. UDOT says it would take a complicated and thorough study. There is data to show that light rail has improved the flow of traffic on Foothill Drive …by about one lane of capacity. Go ahead and invest billions on more trains? Stupid!
UTA is orchestrating a classic shell game. Their bus system has become one of the most expensive and foolishly run in the US.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Is it a good time to be doing this with the state of the economy?