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House approves Transportation Investment Act with growth-factor formula after extended debate
Summary
After hours of floor debate about committing future revenue, the Utah House approved a Lockhart amendment creating a Transportation Investment Fund and a multi-year growth factor to dedicate auto-related sales tax revenue to transportation; the measure passed 50–24 and moves to the Senate.
The Utah House approved the Transportation Investment Act on a 50–24 vote after lengthy debate over whether the Legislature should pre-authorize future revenue allocations for roads and highways.
Representative Rebecca Lockhart, sponsor of the amendment, said the change creates a Transportation Investment Fund that captures auto-related sales taxes and places $90 million in ongoing funding and $30 million in one-time funds into the account. "This amendment ... puts those monies into the Transportation Investment Fund," Lockhart said, describing the measure as a way to fund roads without raising new taxes.
Supporters framed the growth factor as a way to protect transportation buying power from inflation and to avoid a future gas-tax increase. Representative Adams argued the state’s 1997 gas-tax level had lost significant buying power and that automatic adjustments were necessary. "We have no factor in transportation that goes with inflation," Adams said.
Opponents cautioned that the amendment sets percentages that could bind future legislatures. Representative Holdaway said the growth-factor provisions "pre-set decisions down the road" and expressed reluctance to commit revenue streams before future fiscal conditions are known. Several members noted the amendment includes language ‘‘subject to legislative appropriation,’’ which Lockhart and other proponents said preserves discretion for future legislatures.
The amendment also specifies transfers to the Centennial Highway Fund and includes a multi-year schedule with a 0.36 percent rate in one year and a 0.56 percent point later; sponsors said those figures are based on State Tax Commission estimates of motor-vehicle–related sales. Lockhart told colleagues the task force devised the formula and that the appropriation clause means future legislatures can decline to fund the growth factor.
After members called previous question and completed debate, the House voted to adopt substitute House Bill 18, as amended. The bill passed 50 yes to 24 no and was referred to the Senate for further action.
The House proceedings included numerous floor questions and clarifications about which sales categories would be counted, how the fund interacts with existing Centennial Highway appropriations and the legislative appropriation trigger that would be required for growth-factor deposits to occur.
Next steps: the bill will go to the Utah Senate for consideration; any future deposits tied to the growth factor remain subject to annual legislative appropriation.
