Utah
How will motorists who don't pay gas taxes fund road upkeep? That's one of the questions that the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee hopes to answer this summer as they work to reauthorize the FAST Act before it expires on Sept. 30, 2020.
Route Fifty
The Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan will head to President Trump's desk for an expected signature before heading back to seven states for final ratification.
Cronkite News
The National League of Cities has a new report surveying local tools for addressing the housing affordability crisis. State partnerships are included.
Governing
Las Vegas has almost maximized its growth potential given projects for its future water supply—something has to give.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Drone footage and 3d models reveal the stakes in an ongoing legal controversy surrounding the Trump administration's attempt to undo the Obama administration's use of the Antiquities Act to create the Bears Ears National Monument.
The Washington Post
When transportation spending was last reauthorized, rather than hike the gas tax to maintain current spending, Congress diverted general fund revenue. A program to study alternative revenue options was created so states could launch pilot projects.
Transport Topics
Feature
The plans, they are a-changin.
An annual reports finds a growing number of homelessness in Utah. That information, coupled with mistakes in earlier reports, casts doubt on the state's record of success in housing vulnerable populations.
Place
State preemption, in the form major zoning reforms and mandates for local housing targets, are on the table in the Utah Legislature this year.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Four mayors hammer home the point that moving to 100 percent clean energy on the municipal level is environmentally, economically, and politically desirable.
Next City
It was not your basic fuel tax hike. Utah voters were told that raising the tax would help education by redirecting revenue from the General Fund to schools that currently goes to transportation. Yet voters also passed decidedly liberal initiatives.
Deseret News
Newly obtained documents reveal the extent of the state's efforts to strip protections from federal lands around the United States.
Pacific Standard
UTA's Bus Rapid Transit Line is yet to be completed but, by removing fares, the service has quintupled its ridership.
The Salt Lake City Tribune
Californians will determine whether to repeal recent fuel tax and user fee increases; Missourians to vote on a 10-cent gas tax hike over 4 years; Coloradans whether to hike the sales tax, and the most interesting measure will be decided in Utah.
Governing
In "America's Eviction Badlands," universities are developing web apps to help tenants stay in their homes.
CityLab
A federal grant meant to reduce congestion will make bus travel from Provo to Orem free until 2021.
The Salt Lake City Tribune
Rather than projecting when the 50 million milestone will be reached, demographic and political indicators predict the state's population is more likely to decline, according to Joe Mathews of Zócalo Public Square.
Zocalo Public Square
But is it high enough? Everything is relative, and with the prior toll being only a buck per zone, the hope is that $2, which took effect Saturday, will cause some motorists to carpool to keep speeds at 55 mph during peak hours.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah has generally made room for single-family homes in the past, but the Salt Lake Tribune thinks its time for new plans as the state faces demographic changes and worsening affordability.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Cheap water flows freely to the golf courses of St. George, Utah, but all the new residents mean it’s going to have to increase supply or reduce demand—or both.
CityLab
