Daily Herald | Posted: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:00 pm
The Utah Legislature needs to focus on investing in infrastructure and economic development and less on tax cuts, the head of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.
"Our plea for the Legislature is ... you have got to invest this or we are going to lose our economic advantage in the future," said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the chamber. "If we don't, in today's economic world we will fail."
The Salt Lake chamber works closely with chambers of commerce and businesses in Utah, Weber and Davis counties and considers economic development to be a regional and statewide issue, he said.
In a document outlining the chamber's legislative agenda, state leaders were praised for investing in road spending last year and urged to go even further this year, when record state revenues are expected to create large surpluses.
Beattie noted that the state has $23.6 billion in road needs, "all of which is totally unfunded. There's been no money set aside for them."
The unfunded projects in Utah County include the reconstruction of Interstate 15 and of U.S. Highway 6 from Spanish Fork to Interstate 70, as well as the Mountain View Corridor that would connect Pleasant Grove to Interstate 80 in Salt Lake County.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.