This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
After the police fee, then what?
When Salt Lake County eliminates its unpopular police fee — as ordered by the Legislature — it will erase nearly $12 million in revenues that once paid for law enforcement in its unincorporated suburbs.
So how will the county pay to police a population (170,000) so large that if contained within a single city, it would rank second only to Salt Lake City in size?
It's a question officials will pose to residents next month during a series of public meetings. Truth be told, there are few options.
The county doesn't have the power to tax natural gas, electricity or cable television bills, as cities do. (The county tried, but failed, to get that power during the latest legislative session.) It can't raise sales taxes to bring revenues up to pre-recession levels. (It lacks that authority, too.)
That leaves property taxes. Or budget cuts.
"The question is, 'Do you want us to reduce services, or do you want to keep services where they are?' " Mayor Peter Corroon said. If the latter is true, "we have to fund that. Property tax is all we have. Without the fee, that is the only area where we can make some adjustments."
What the county cannot afford to do, officials insist, is keep the same number of officers on the street without cash to compensate for a lost police fee.
"There is no way," Budget Director Lance Brown said. "In theory, if you were to cannibalize the other services, you could come up with $12 million. But I don't think residents would be happy with the result."
So county officials will propose at the Utah Taxpayers Association conference Monday swapping the police fee with a property tax. The scenario could unfold in one of two ways:
• Option 1: The county's law-enforcement funding arm — known as the Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Service Area — would replace the police fee, dollar for dollar, with a property tax. The tax would generate $11.7 million. The district then would get a portion of existing sales taxes to make up the rest of its $20.4 million policing budget.
• Option 2: The county would shift the property taxes now set aside for municipal services such as snow plowing, street repair and animal services in unincorporated areas to the law-enforcement district. That would make law enforcement reliant entirely on property taxes, a stable tax stream, while those other services would be funded with sales taxes. The law-enforcement district then would have to impose its own property tax to complete its $20.4 million budget.
Neither option would give the county more money than it now receives.
What would it mean for average homeowners? Maybe some good news. They likely would pay less for policing. Right now, they shell out $162 a year for that. With a property tax, that bill could drop about $50 a year on a $220,000 home, according to preliminary estimates.
High-valued properties, such as Kennecott, likely would see their bills shoot up.
There is a third option: Cut services.
Corroon said the county may have to lose officers to do it. Officials said they already have slashed the budget for services in the unincorporated area by a fourth, on average.
Corroon will call on the community for comments in June. He plans to eliminate the fee, starting in 2012.
"It will be gone by the end of this year," he said. "That is a commitment we have all made."
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Meetings set
Salt Lake County will stage a series of public meetings in June to discuss how to pay for law enforcement in unincorporated suburbs such as Magna, Millcreek and Kearns once its police fee is gone. Here's the schedule:
Kearns • 6-8 p.m., June 7, Kearns Library, 5350 S. 4220 West
Southeast Islands • 7-9 p.m., June 8, Peruvian Park Elementary, 1545 E. 8425 South, Sandy
Big Cottonwood Canyon • 7-9 p.m., June 13, Whitmore Library, 2197 E. Fort Union Blvd. (7000 South), Cottonwood Heights
Emigration Canyon • 7-9 p.m., June 14, Emigration Fire Station, 5025 E. Emigration Canyon Road
Copperton • 6:30-8:30 p.m., June 15, Bingham Canyon Lions Club, 320 Hillcrest St., Copperton
Magna • 7-9 p.m., June 16, Webster Community Center, 8925 W. 2700 South, Magna
General unincorporated • 7-9 p.m., June 21, County Government Center, 2001 S. State St., Salt Lake City
Millcreek • 7-9 p.m., June 29, Salt Lake Christian Center, 4300 S. 700 East, Millcreek
Source: Salt Lake County