State legislators played to a small audience at a town hall meeting in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday night, but that did not keep them from having big things to say.

Seventeen people came to ask questions of Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, and Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, during the 90-minute forum, sponsored by Saratoga Springs for residents.

Madsen and Sumsion took on the school districts and warned that funding for the controversial Mountain View Corridor could languish for years unless the state allows it to be a toll road.

Over the past five or six years, "nearly a billion dollars has been put into class-size reduction and they have not been reduced," Madsen told those gathered. "No one knows where that money went."

In a recent meeting with lawyers for school districts and state office of education representatives "the prospect of having to account for the money elicited squeals and howls," he said. "There will be a tremendous push back if we demand to know where the money goes."

When the Legislature gave $2,500 raises to teachers, "suddenly 1,500 more teachers appeared on the rolls," he said. "Where did they come from? I think there are a lot of people that would like to see accountability of where the tax dollars go."

County Commissioner Larry Ellertson, who also spoke at the meeting, said nothing will change until the public gets involved.

"The public must show interest in school board meetings," he said. "They have a lot of power."

"And pay attention to school board elections," said Madsen.

"We have got to get people to challenge incumbents," said Sumsion. "Almost none are challenged and that is not healthy."

A quarter of all tax money funneled to schools now goes to fund administration, and that percentage is growing, Madsen said.

"The school districts are consuming it at the top level before it ever gets to the schools," he said.

Alpine School District and others statewide have given up tax revenues to encourage commercial developments, a move that all three men said should stop, and may be the subject of future legislation.

"I don't agree that they should be giving subsidies to commercial developments," Madsen said, noting districts do so knowing they are still guaranteed their per pupil state funding. "They come asking for more money as they are giving it away out the back door."

Answering an audience question about the controversial Mountain View Corridor, Sumsion said he believes the Legislature is leaning toward maxing out the state's debt capacity in order to fully fund the immediate reconstruction of Interstate 15 through Utah County.

Because of that, "probably the reality is that the Mountain View Corridor is not going to be built for years and years unless we can find a way to generate more revenue," he said. "I know folks in Lehi are up in arms about the alignment, but I've been telling people you may be dead before this thing is built."

Representatives from other areas of the state feel it is unfair to spend money on the Mountain View Corridor, he said.

Because of that, the Legislature may consider letting the road be built by a private entity as a toll road, he said, "but I think Mountain View is going to spin around trying to find funding for years."

Madsen said residents must ask themselves if they would rather pay a toll and have the road now, or wait until 2035 for the state to build it.

When a resident said a toll road is double taxation, Madsen said it would simply give commuters an option, and those who don't want to pay the toll can take Interstate 15. Only the money of private investors would be at stake if commuters choose not to pay the toll, and for those who did use the road, the toll would represent "a very direct user tax," he said.

To fund the roads needed around the state once the debt capacity is maxed out by Interstate 15 would require "a 50 percent increase in the gas tax," Sumsion said. "If we did that, there would be 100 percent turnover in the Legislature" when voters removed those who approved the tax increase. In addition, the federal government "is already seriously looking at a 40 percent gas tax increase."

When one Saratoga Springs woman said traffic slowed her from taking her son to the hospital in an emergency, Madsen said sometimes tragedy is what drives road improvements.

"The cost of human tragedy will draw resources," he said. "Sometimes it takes body counts. It's awful."

Both men also said they support differential pay, which would give perhaps a $5,000 pay increase to science and math teachers who are leaving teaching positions for higher paying jobs.

Sumsion said he is afraid that if a Democrat is elected president, the nation will move toward socialized medicine, and he would like to do something at the legislative level "to ward that off if that day comes."

Madsen said the Legislature may take up property tax reform so that home values are assessed annually, resulting in smaller tax increases.

"There has been some sticker shock this year because assessments have gone up so dramatically, partly because they are only evaluated every three or five years, so this equity appears suddenly," he said.