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Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs voters will decide in November whether they want to join the Utah Transit Authority district.
Last week, both cities passed resolutions to get the option on the ballot for this year. Joining UTA will raise sales tax by one-quarter of a cent and will bring bus service to the cities.
City officials in both cities wanted to stress that residents are already paying this tax when they shop anywhere other than Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain.
"We need our citizens to understand the fact that they are already paying the sales tax in other cities," said Mayor Heather Jackson of Eagle Mountain.
Saratoga Springs Mayor Tim Parker and City Council also wanted to stress to residents that this is not necessarily a "new tax."
"Anytime anyone shops in another place, other than Eagle Mountain or Saratoga Springs, they are paying the quarter-cent sales tax," Parker said. In return for adopting the sales tax adjustment, residents will get access to an express bus service to and from Salt Lake City as soon as April 2009.
Residents with disabilities in both cities also would have access to UTA's paratransit program.
"We have quite a few people in our community whose lives will be expanded when they are able to travel to and from work using paratransit," Parker said. He added that he has a neighbor who asks him every week when the city will join UTA because he will benefit from the paratransit program.
After the possibility of joining UTA was raised at a joint city council meeting in Eagle Mountain earlier this summer, it seemed unlikely that anything would be resolved before the 2009 election because of the short time period before ballot finalization. Both cities' leaders said they were pleased to have this initiative a year earlier than expected.
Eagle Mountain Councilman Nathan Ochsenhirt praised Jackson for her efforts to get this initiative on the ballot.
"We are getting our foot in the door for other transit programs in our city," Jackson said. |
