Trains to Tooele, a new institution to provide workforce training, and no cuts to senior services were among the requests voiced by Tooele County citizens and leaders that met with their Legislators at the state Capitol on Wednesday.

The meeting was the first this year of the Tooele County Caucus, a group of local government officials, education leaders, law enforcement officers, and social service providers led by Tooele County Commission Chair Colleen Johnson. Reps. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, and Jim Gowans, D-Tooele, along with Sen. Brent Goodfellow, D- West Valley City, listened to the group’s concerns and answered questions.

The agenda was varied and discussion impassioned. Jim Parker, a Lake Point resident, inquired about getting Tooele on the list for FrontRunner commuter rail.

“We certainly have enough people from Tooele making that trip to Salt Lake every day,” Parker said. “It may be five to 10 years out before we can get service but we should be getting on the list now.”

Gowans said he had investigated commuter rail.

“It involves federal dollars so we would be working with a federal agency, not just the state,” Gowans said. “I also found out that many FrontRunner trains use the same tracks as commercial trains. We could enter into an agreement to use the Union Pacific tracks for morning and evening runs and let them use their tracks between commuter runs.”

The discussion touched on higher education in the county when Scott Snelson, acting president of Salt Lake-Tooele Applied Technology College, reported House Bill 15, which merges the Salt Lake portion of the Applied Technology College with Salt Lake Community College, was passed out of a House committee on Tuesday with a favorable recommendation. The bill should be voted on by the full House this week. It is significant to Tooele residents because it will form a separate Tooele Campus of the Utah Applied Technology College. Budget arrangements for the new college still need to be determined.

Snelson is supporting a first year budget plan that will give the Tooele Applied Technology Campus 70 percent of the budget of the former Salt Lake - Tooele Applied Technology College. That plan would allocate $2.3 million to the new Tooele Campus for its first year of operation.

Many of those in attendance at the caucus meeting were concerned about how deeply social services programs could be cut as Legislators try to balance the state’s budget amid a recession.

Doug Thomas, Tooele unit manager for Valley Mental Health, expressed concerns over cuts affecting those served by his agency.

“There will be some compromise on those proposed cuts,” Menlove responded. “I have heard all kinds of rumors, including that we are dismantling the entire health department at the state level. There will be cuts, but not quite that severe.”

Karen Kuipers, Tooele County Relief Service coordinator, also spoke about the importance of maintaining a safety net for the most vulnerable in society.

“In the past, Relief Services, which provides services to the homeless, has received one-time funding from the legislature,” Kuipers said. “But what we need is ongoing funding that we can depend on in the way of more support for the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Trust Fund and the Olene Walker Housing Fund.”

Gayle Parker, tobacco prevention specialist for the Tooele County school district, spoke in favor of raising the tobacco tax on cigarettes and against cuts for prevention programs.

“Prevention is preferable and less expensive than treatment following addiction or incarceration,” Parker said.

Jerry Edwards, president of the Grantsville Senior Citizens Center Board, expressed concern over cuts to programs like Meals on Wheels.

“Senior citizens have been paying taxes for years, and now when they need services, after years of paying, they are being cut,” Edwards said.

Menlove reassured Edwards that cuts affecting seniors wouldn’t be as deep as previously reported.

“It looks like there will be some restoration of programs like Meals on Wheels,” she said.

Other legislation expected to be a priority this session includes ethics reform in the Legislature, water rights and health care reform, according to Menlove.

After a campaign season marked by a couple high-profile ethics cases, the legislature is ready to enact legislation on both campaign finance and public officer ethics. Several bills have been introduced that will ban gifts to Legislators, restrict the personal use of campaign funds, improve campaign finance reporting, and put restrictions on public officials becoming lobbyists.

Water rights legislation will again be a hot topic watched intently by county leaders. No less than 10 bills on different aspects of water rights have been filed this year, according to Gowans. He said he’s also in the process of working on a bill that would make modifications to the adjudication process. The current adjudication process conducted by the state engineer left several Erda residents high and dry without water rights last year.

The legislature will also continue a health care reform process that began last year with the formation of a task force to study the issue. The task force is ready to make a report to the legislature this session, Menlove said, adding that will lead to the introduction of several bills aimed at making health insurance more affordable.

“Health care reform is a complicated issue and won’t be totally resolved in one session,” Menlove said.

Menlove has also introduced House Bill 240, covering the wanton destruction of livestock, in response to a spate of random animal killings that took place in Tooele County last year.

“The bill is modeled after the poaching law,” Menlove said. “It will enhance penalties and put the perpetrators’ property used in the killings at risk of seizure. They may lose their car and weapons.”

The Legislature has only 45 days to complete its work. The 2009 legislative session began Jan. 26 and will conclude on March 12.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com