In 2001 the county raised the fund tax rate by 40 percent. Since then, the fund balance has grown from $7.5 million to $22.2 million, as of Dec. 31, 2004. The residents of the unincorporated county, including Cottonwood Heights, contributed those taxes to pay for critical municipal services such as police, fire, streets, etc. The current surplus represents taxes paid for services not yet received.

Some assert that Cottonwood Heights should pay a forfeiture fine for incorporating by forgoing any claim on their portion of the Municipal Services Fund. We find no basis for this in law, equity or logic. In fact, the Utah Legislature recently passed a law that further enables an appropriation from this fund to a new city to avoid the very inequity and potential double taxation we now face.

We simply want the prepayments made by our citizens to be used for the intended purpose: to provide municipal services to Cottonwood Heights. Otherwise, they will be paying again through county contracts for the very services that our tax dollars prepaid as part of the large fund accumulations since 2001.

If the surplus is not equitably shared, then Cottonwood Heights residents not only will pay twice for the same services, but the county will receive a windfall of taxes in the $4 million to $7 million range, paid by our citizens, without having to provide the expected services.

Consider this: What would happen if all unincorporated areas were annexed into a city and the fund were dissolved? It would seem the height of unfairness for the county to simply retain those prepaid taxes for other purposes. Most likely, the fund balance would be returned pro-rata to the participating taxpayers based on some equitable formula.

A conservative formula using percentage of population and tax base as factors would yield a distribution to Cottonwood Heights in excess of $4 million.

Simply stated, we are only asking that the portion of the current $22 million surplus, which would have been used to provide services to Cottonwood Heights, be allocated to offset contracts for the very municipal services for which the taxes were originally collected.

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Kelvyn Cullimore is mayor of Cottonwood Heights.