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SALT LAKE CITY — A watchdog group is slamming a Utah senator's proposal to shift sales tax revenue for transportation needs to instead finance water infrastructure projects, asserting the measure is a "Trojan horse" designed to pay for the Lake Powell pipeline.
Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said SB80, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton, shifts $35.8 million in sales tax revenue from the transportation fund to instead pay for projects that in some cases have already been funded, are duplicative, or can be paid for out existing funds already earmarked by water districts or cities.
The bill will be heard at 2 p.m. Wednesday by the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee.
Frankel said the bill's permanent shift of dedicated sales tax revenue to water projects is built on a "wish list" of $35 billion in statewide water projects identified by Utah's largest water districts: Central Utah, Washington, Jordan Valley and Weber Basin.
But Weber Basin general manager Tage Flint said the list was never designed to be a request for state money but rather a dynamic and comprehensive look at Utah projects being undertaken by multiple districts and municipal providers.
"It was not a document asking for that much money," Flint said. "It was an attempt to quantify water needs going out to 2060. … We see this as having great value in that, for the first time, it is quantifying statewide water project costs. It has been widely received and well-received."
Frankel said his analysis determined that at least $10 billion of the funding needs identified by the districts have already been paid for, have been constructed, or will be paid for by other revenues such as water rates, bonds and property taxes.
Flint countered that because the list is now a few years old, he hopes some projects have been taken care of and that cities and other project proponents have devised ways to pay for their particular projects.
"It is a working and dynamic document," he said.
Adams' proposal is designed to provide the state a financing mechanism for a portion of the Lake Powell pipeline and Bear River development projects with end water users repaying that loaned portion over time. It is also designed to pay for the rebuilding of federal water infrastructure that is no longer being taken care of by U.S. governmental agencies, Flint said.
Even with the dedication of a portion of sales tax revenue on an annual basis — and a built-in growth rate — Flint said the money will cover less than a quarter of the anticipated water needs over the decades to come.
"It will pay for only a fraction of the pie that we are talking about in this statewide water infrastructure plan," he said.
The money generated by Adams' measure would be deposited in the Water Infrastructure Account established by a bill he passed last year. In the 2015 session, a $5 million general fund appropriation went into the account.
Adams said the fund he established is intended to help Utah meet the needs of a population that is expected to nearly double in the next 35 years.
"We have extreme needs along the Wasatch Front," he said. "I don't know how you double the population without dealing with education, roads and water. You have to deal with all of this. That is part of the process of accommodating growth."
Frankel has asked State Auditor John Dougall to probe the merits of the list. Email: amyjoi@deseretnews.com Twitter: amyjoi16
