This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

During its session earlier this year, the Legislature drove a stake through the heart of the unpopular police fee in unincorporated Salt Lake County. As a result, the fee likely will be replaced with a property tax, beginning next year. The question now before Salt Lake County leaders is how to structure that tax. We believe that a simple swap of the current fee for a property tax would be best.

Salt Lake County leaders are considering two options. One would be a simple swap, the other would be a more complicated adjustment of the tax system in the unincorporated county. Because the system for law enforcement in the unincorporated county is complex and difficult to understand, and because the controversy over the police fee has made people suspicious of that system, a simple replacement of the fee with a property tax would be the prudent choice.

The mechanics are a bit convoluted, but here are the two choices: The Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Service Area — the special service district for law enforcement in the unincorporated county — could impose a property tax to raise the revenue that currently is generated by the fee. That's about $11.7 million. Salt Lake County could continue to pay the remainder of the $20.4 million police budget with sales taxes collected for municipal services in the unincorporated area.

Under the second option, the special service district would impose a property tax large enough to pay the entire cost of police patrols in the unincorporated area. The county would eliminate its property tax for municipal services in the area to compensate for the district's property tax increase beyond the amount now generated by the fee. The result would be that police patrols would be funded entirely by property taxes imposed by the district. However, other municipal services in the unincorporated area, such as snow plowing, street repair and animal services, would become entirely dependent on sales tax revenues.

Regardless of which option is chosen, the Unified Police Department will continue to provide the officers on the beat.

Relying entirely on property tax to fund basic policing, as the second option would do, seems attractive today, because the Bush Recession has hammered sales tax collections. That's why municipal budgets have had to be cut severely. Salt Lake County trimmed law enforcement 7 percent in the unincorporated area, and cut other municipal services budgets there by about 26 percent in recent years.

But over the long term, a diversified tax base is better. Replacing the fee with a property tax would preserve that.