This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Tooele County Commission came up with its own version of a classic Christmas song as the holidays approached last month, with the new lyrics going something like, "Let them be snowed, let them be snowed, let them be snowed."

At least that's how a number of county taxpayers felt, according to their reaction to the commission's hefty pay increase it gave as an early Yuletide present to itself.

During a budget meeting in December, the commission approved an 18.4 percent raise for Commission Chairman Wade Bitner and a 19.4 percent hike for Commissioners Myron Bateman and Shawn Milne, who was the lone dissenting vote against the pay increase for himself and his colleagues.

Apparently, the county employees were not as good this year. The commissioners, who get to decide who is naughty and who is nice, granted those workers only a 1.2 percent cost-of-living increase.

The commissioners are taking heat in Tooele County because, in July 2015, they promised not to accept a salary increase other than a cost-of-living adjustment.

Now, some letters to the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin are calling the commissioners liars and asking for a recall.

Bitner and Bateman acknowledge making the promise in 2015 (after stepping back from an initial 24 percent salary hike proposal), but they told the newspaper that the promise was made under duress.

"Two years ago, we were intimidated by a small but vocal group of citizens," Bitner told the paper. "And that is not a good way to govern."

Added Bateman: "That promise was made under duress. Not adjusting salaries at that time was a mistake we need to correct."

Bitner said the commissioners changed their jobs in 2010 to full-time status, but with no salary adjustment at that time. As CEOs of the county, he argued, commissioners' pay should be commensurate with that of other elected officials.

The news raise puts the commissioners' annual salary at just over $87,000. It becomes effective this month.

Speaking of snow jobs • Besides the pay increase the commissioners gave themselves, they also voted for a nearly 9 percent tax increase this year, which will bring in about $780,000 in new revenue.

But before voters get too worked up about that, the tax hike might be due to the political manipulations of another group of politicians: Utah legislators.

The Republican-dominated Legislature and the GOP governor boast every year that they stick to good conservative principles by not raising taxes.

But that doesn't mean taxes in Utah are not going up. Lawmakers just make sure they are not the ones who get blamed for it.

Tooele is one of nine counties that raised property taxes for 2017. The others are Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Davis, Juab, Sanpete, Wasatch and Weber.

That is largely because the Legislature has bills requiring counties to provide more expensive services without the state compensation needed to pay for them.

So the legislators can say they are passing bills to help more people in need and also maintain they didn't raise taxes. They appear as heroes going into the next election cycle.

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative downgrades the severity of several types of drug crimes to keep those offenders out of prison. It focuses on behavioral health treatment as an alternative to incarceration, but the cost of that help has not been funded.

The Legislature provided $14 million for state costs, but county costs were left uncovered. The Utah Association of Counties (UAC) estimates the unfunded amount is about $16 million.

In addition, providing behavioral health under Medicaid is a county responsibility and the growth in enrollment has not been funded by the Legislature for four years, leaving the counties to pick up the estimated $5 million annual shortfall.

Counties are just beginning efforts on increased indigent criminal-defense services. The state requires counties to provide those services, but gives no money. Utah is one of two states not providing state funding for those types of services, according to UAC.

So remember, come election time, the legislators haven't raised taxes (besides a long-overdue gas tax increase for transportation and some special impositions on people who do bad things like smoke). They've forced county commissioners to do the deed.