Businesses began publicly complaining roads were deteriorating and not keeping up with growth, hurting the ability to move goods. As the gas tax kept losing value from inflation, they said, highway officials stopped maintaining rural highways to focus on busier urban freeways. That started to provide political cover worried lawmakers needed.
In early 2013, the Salt Lake Chamber formed the Utah Transportation Coalition. It produced studies saying economic benefits of such tax hikes would be far greater than costs. It testified, lobbied and even advertised on behalf of a tax hike.
At the same time, the nonpartisan Utah Foundation released a report saying that Utah has an $11.3 billion shortfall over the next 30 years for priority highway and mass transit projects. The study was quoted incessantly for two years.
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