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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Area chamber leaders want you to vote for tax increase for transportation
By John Pitt, Dave Hardman and Monica HoldawayA local r
adio reporter recently defined traffic in Northern Utah as "a slow slog with no good alternative routes." Individual commuters know that is a painfully accurate description of the delays they face at least twice a day. Business owners know those delays waste millions of dollars as employees, goods and services sit idle on traffic-choked roads. Community leaders know that words like bottleneck, quagmire and slog have a tremendously negative impact on businesses considering relocation to the Wasatch Front. All this is why the individuals, business owners and community leaders of your local chambers of commerce have joined forces to do something about Northern Utah's traffic dilemma.
The Northern Utah Transportation Alliance is a coalition formed by the Davis, Ogden-Weber and Brigham area chambers. Its mission is to support development of critically needed transportation infrastructure along the Wasatch Front. Its immediate effort is to generate support for ballot proposals in Davis and Weber counties that will increase sales tax by one-quarter cent. The Alliance is supporting a similar proposal in Brigham City, Willard and Perry. These initiatives will appear on ballots this November as Transportation Improvements Opinion Question No. 1. The increased revenue generated by their passage will be allocated to transportation projects selected by the councils of governments in each county.
That means local leaders make the decisions regarding local transportation funding.
Chambers of commerce traditionally oppose tax increases. Business owners are impacted on both personal and professional levels every time taxes go up. In this case, however, our members recognize that time is money.
They know the additional $9 per month (projected average family impact) they will pay in sales taxes is much less than the money they lose each day as the local economy gets bogged down in traffic. They recognize that the problem won't go away if left untreated. In fact, it will get much worse.
The population along the Wasatch Front will grow by 1 million people by the year 2030. That will triple current traffic flow. Unless we are prepared, the time and money consuming delays we face today will get significantly worse. That is a scenario we must prevent. The money generated by the additional quarter-cent sales tax will fund mass transit projects, road construction and corridor preservation at current prices. If we delay our response, the cost to buy our way out of the slow slog we've created will triple as well.
We ask you to join your local chamber members who recognize that the flow of business and the flow of traffic are inseparable. Vote "yes" on Transportation Improvements Opinion Question No. 1 and keep Utah's economy flowing smoothly.
Pitt is president of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, Hardman is president of the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce and Holdaway is president of the Brigham Area Chamber of Commerce.
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