A dust-up in Salt Lake County over transit funding has local officials worried that UTA is viewing taxpayers as a money train.

Salt Lake County voters passed a sales tax increase with the understanding that it would amount to about $2.5 billion over 30 years. But now the Utah Transit Authority says it requires a 50-year commitment, or even longer, potentially doubling the stated costs of running the rails.

Utah County is now preparing its own commuter rail bond that looks to be an estimated 30-33 years, said Chad Eccles, a transit planner with the Mountainland Association of Governments. Officials expect to put the project out to bid in November and even begin initial construction next year for a 2012 opening.

"The sooner we get a contractor locked into a price the cheaper for us it is to do," Eccles said.

The worry is that UTA will require an agreement beyond what was initially expected, said County Commissioner Steve White, much like what is going on in Salt Lake County.

Commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Provo is expected to cost about $850 million, some of which Utah County is expected to pay for with a sales tax increase that voters approved a year ago. It's a far cry from the billions being spent up north because Salt Lake County is also spending money on a handful of light rail spurs, aka TRAX.

All that light rail is what's exacting a heavy toll on taxpayer pocketbooks. That's because revenue from rail, light or heavy, doesn't come close to covering the cost of operation and maintenance. Commuter rail revenues fund about 35 percent of operations, while TRAX revenues fund about 40 percent, Eccles said.

The idea of funding UTA in perpetuity for commuter rail raises concern with White.

"One of our positions is that we don't write a blank check to anybody," White said.

UTA isn't asking for a blank check, said spokesman Chad Saley. Instead, officials are saying that if taxpayers are going to fund construction, they're also going to need to fund operations. That comes in the form of an interlocal agreement, which the county and UTA have been negotiating.

"We're hoping to have an interlocal agreement with them later this month," said Saley, who added that the request is for 50 years.

White isn't inclined to give UTA five full decades, at least not without "caveats and escape hatches."

With a booming population and a maturing commercial base, White expects even positive estimates of the sales tax revenue to be well below what will be taken in.

"The point is there will be surplus capacity," White said. "They need to give value to the taxpayer for the extra money."

Not being beholden to UTA allows planners flexibility in how those tax dollars will be spent, he says. When the tax increase passed, included in the wording was an option to use it to purchase rights of way for roads.

"The whole world doesn't just revolve around commuter rail and TRAX," White said.

Commuter rail will be an important element in the next five years, though, as officials desperately search for alternatives to Interstate 15. It's expected that the freeway will get two additional lanes each way, but the job will take five years and additional lanes will be closed during that time.

"What we're trying to do is get commuter rail here before I-15 reconstruction begins," White said.