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Sunday, February 3, 2008  |  No Comments [ Add Comment ]

Sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes that luck runs out.

Given the recent release of a Legislative Auditor General's report on the Utah Transit Authority, Davis and Weber counties' commissioners must be feeling awfully fortunate right now, while UTA's management and board of directors are feeling the boot of government nearing their throats.

Sniping between the Legislature and UTA is nothing new, especially carping by lawmakers about UTA General Manager John Inglish's annual salary ($266,614), bonus ($39,860) and incentive pay ($60,526). But while that's one of the audit's chief complaints about the UTA -- the pay alone is $70,606 more per year than the average U.S. transit general manager's salary -- board governance and an increasing reliance on sales tax money for project funding were big targets, too.

As reported by the Standard's Loretta Park, UTA is set to spend $11 billion on new projects over the next 23 years. Most of that money will come from current sales taxes, and additional sales tax hikes UTA expects voters to approve in coming years to further expand the transit system. That's because federal dollars -- like those tapped to pay for construction of Salt Lake City's main TRAX line -- are quickly drying up, and local and state funding will be needed to build more projects, such as a hoped-for TRAX extension into south Davis County and a possible streetcar system in Ogden.

The fact of the matter is, it'll be hard not to rely on local and state tax funds for public transit going forward. Federal participation in these projects has plummeted from 80 percent in the 1990s to less than 50 percent now, and it will surely continue to slide. That means if we want more transit in the years ahead, it'll take state and local tax dollars to get them done and to keep them running.

That said, UTA obviously needs a tougher board of directors. The current board may or may not be made up of Inglish's poodles, lavishing such pay and bonuses on him each year, but the audit claims the board lacks independence and defers too much to UTA management. And if $11 billion, most of which will be state and local tax money, is to be headed UTA's way over the next 23 years, there had better be forceful oversight by a strong board of directors.

An indication of the current board's absence of determination is that passenger counts for TRAX have never been reliable. This has been acknowledged for years by UTA, and the legislative audit confirms that TRAX ridership has been overestimated by about 20 percent. UTA's been working on the problem for years, but has yet to find a solution. Where's the accountability?

Some lawmakers have suggested more involvement by the governor and Legislature in selecting board members, and UTA oversight. They may be right.

The only good luck to stem from the audit's release is that Davis and Weber counties' commissions suddenly have some breathing room. It may be temporary, but it's real for now. When the Legislature removed the sales tax on unprepared food -- it took effect Jan. 1 -- the portion of sales taxes flowing to the UTA was diminished by $2 million in Davis County and $1.8 million in Weber. Lawmakers told counties they could restore .05 percent of the tax if they wanted to; Box Elder, Salt Lake and Utah counties did, but Davis and Weber county commissions did not. Now UTA is threatening service cuts -- even to FrontRunner commuter rail and paratransit routes, although the agency has since backed off on those targets.

For now, Davis and Weber can point to the audit and say they were prudent not to quickly restore the tax -- that UTA deserves closer scrutiny. But in the long run, they'll have to decide whether UTA is being straight with them about the funding necessary to operate at current levels in their respective counties. That decision is more likely to go UTA's way.

(To hear comments by Reps. Brad Dee, Ron Bigelow and Gordon Snow regarding the UTA audit, and the Davis and Weber counties commissions, go to the "Opinion" tab at www.standard.net. These legislators met with members of the Standard-Examiner's editorial board Tuesday at the state Capitol.)

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