Salt Lake County can come up with a host of reasons for wanting to raise property taxes in the unincorporated areas. But it shouldn't do it. Not now, and not in light of the deal all counties made with state lawmakers last year.
Remember, the counties came to the state, hat in hand, asking for permission to diversify their tax revenues by raising sales taxes. If they were granted this permission, the counties said, they would lower property taxes $1 for every $1 raised by the extra sales tax. They made that promise because lawmakers worried counties would seize the opportunity and lower property taxes only a little, creating the false impression they were doing their constituents a favor.Now, Salt Lake County is complaining that Midvale's annexation of the Union Fort area, together with its lucrative Fort Union Shopping Center, would shortchange the funds that pay for police, fire and other services to the roughly 300,000 residents of unincorporated areas. Two of the three commissioners want to raise taxes by $4 million.
But that could end up being the most expensive $4 million in county history.
Already, state lawmakers are talking about retaliations. One proposed bill would require counties to hold public referendums every time they want to raise property taxes, effective immediately. It is a measure aimed straight at the heart of Salt Lake County's budget. The message ought to be clear. By raising taxes a smidgen now, county commissioners could be putting future commissions - statewide - in straight jackets for a long time.
And what is the price of public confidence? People already are cynical about elected officials. How are they supposed to react when commissioners promise an even split between property and sales taxes and then break that promise because, as one commissioner put it, the promise didn't apply to the municipal services fund?
Counties have a legitimate gripe about the way the state has structured the property tax system. State law forbids counties from taking more money from year to year because of natural market forces, such as a growth and inflation. Even when property values are climbing, county governments have to content themselves with paying rising expenses using an ever-shrinking revenue stream.
The sales tax shift was designed to alleviate some of this shrinkage. But if the counties hope to gain any sympathy from lawmakers about the unfairness of the property tax system, they won't do it by breaking promises.
Significantly, Midvale is thinking of hiring 20 new police officers, 15 firefighters and a host of other administrative staff members to handle the 13,000 residents it hopes to annex. Why can't the county (which, by the way, wants to give its employees a 5.7 percent pay hike) make some corresponding reductions?
For its own good, county government ought to find ways to tighten the belt a little more this time around.