House Panel Clears Plan to Let Cities Create Transit Systems

Any city that is part of the Utah Transit Authority, or another transit district, would be able to create its own transit system under a bill that passed unanimously out of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Thursday.

The bill, HB372, lifts a restriction against cities from providing some transportation services to residents if that transportation service is already provided by a group like UTA. The cities of Provo and Orem have done studies to see if they could create their own bus systems separate from UTA, which currently services the two cities.

UTA officials said Thursday that they did not oppose the measure but wanted to make sure that if a city opted to run its own system, it would not impact UTA’s funding.

HB372 now goes to the House Rules Committee, which will decide whether the bill gets a hearing in the House.

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