In 2016, Summit County voters approved a sales tax amounting to 1 cent on every $4 spent.
A decade later, it now generates about $8 million annually for transportation projects.
A grant program exists to help various city leaders and Summit County decide how to share the money, but as Councilmember Chris Robinson said Jan. 26, the process is not as formal as other county grants.
“I was surprised to see that we just kind of winged it for a period of time,” Robinson said at a meeting of the Council of Governments, or COG.
According to Summit County Deputy Civil Attorney Dave Thomas, one of the primary reasons the COG exists is to distribute the transportation sales tax, or TST, funds.
It includes every Summit County mayor and three county councilmembers, as well as the three school superintendents and the head of the Park City Chamber of Commerce as non-voting members.
The TST grant recipients are most often Summit County cities and towns, High Valley Transit or the county government itself.
In the past Summit County staff screened the applicants and recommended funding levels to COG to recommend to the Summit County Council.
This year, COG may have the opportunity to review every application, and the regional Mountainlands Association of Governments would audit applicant scores. Then COG would create the final recommendations.
County transportation planner Eva De Laurentiis said the proposed changes are intended to prevent conflicts of interest. They also bring the county into closer alignment with state law.
“We want to move away from Summit County being an applicant and also making a recommendation for how much funds everyone should receive,” De Laurentiis said.
COG is scheduled to vote on the details of a new procedure in March.
The proposed changes would make the transportation sales tax grant process more similar to the county Recreation, Arts and Parks tax.
In the case of RAP tax grants, appointed committees interview applicants publicly and score them based on set criteria. Then they submit funding recommendations to the council.
Last year, the Summit County Council nearly voted down COG’s transportation sales tax recommendations because the process was murky.
The money ended up going to state Route 224 bus rapid transit, the county’s van pool program, Park City paved trails and a Hoytsville bridge among other projects.
There is usually less than $6 million to go around since about $2.5 million from the TST is currently used to pay off a 2018 bond.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
