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Several small counties refused to put Proposition 1 on their ballots last year, or defeated it, saying it would give their small bus systems too much of the sales tax increase it would create. They said transit didn't need the money, but roads did.

So the House Revenue and Taxation Committee voted 12-0 on Thursday to endorse HB183 to allow a narrow change for third-class counties — Cache, Summit, Iron, Uintah and Duchesne, which all are served by small bus systems.

Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, said it would allow giving their transit systems as little as 10 percent of higher sales taxes for transportation. Prop 1 would have required giving their bus systems 40 percent of the extra revenue.

Cameron Diehl with the Utah League of Cities and Towns gave an example of problems that Prop 1, allowed by HB362 last year, would create for small counties.

In Iron County, he said present formulas would have given Cedar City $472,00 extra for its roads, but its small bus system would have received $489,000 a year. Cedar figures its roads need the lion's share of any new tax money.

Similarly, transit systems in Cache County and Park City — which do not charge fares — have said they don't need as much money as Prop 1 would mandate, and both support diverting more to local roads.

Draxler noted that HB362 last year was a compromise between counties, cities and the Utah Transit Authority to ensure that all of their needs were addressed together.

While it may make sense to give UTA 40 percent of increased transportation taxes because of its bigger size and use of expensive-to-build trains, he said, it didn't make sense in the smaller counties.

Prop 1 appeared on the ballot in 17 counties, and passed in 10. Uintah was among those that defeated it, but Duchesne passed it. It did not appear on the ballot in Cache, Summit and Iron.

In the UTA district, Weber, Davis and Tooele counties passed Prop 1 — but it was defeated in Salt Lake, Utah and Box Elder counties. Both sides blame the defeat on controversy over UTA's high wages, extensive executive travel and sweetheart deals with developers — although UTA has been adopting reforms to address those.

Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, has introduced HB215 that would allow flexibility in how much in increased sales taxes to share with transit. It gives counties 20 percent of the total and cities 80 percent — and cities could decide to give up to 40 percent of their share to transit, or as little as none.

Greene said he believes HB362 and Prop 1 gave too much to UTA, and more is needed for roads.