The efforts of various residents who tried to get the Salt Lake County Commission to deviate from its proposed 1999 budget have been for naught. Wednesday the commission approved the $496 million budget with no changes.
It was a businesslike affair, with the commission simply voting on the budget without comment.The budget approval came as a surprise to many people because, while it was properly included in Wednesday's commission agenda, commissioners had anticipated approving it on Dec. 14, and that's the date they had been telling people.
County Commission Chairman Brent Overson himself was at a loss to explain why the approval was set for Wednesday instead of Monday.
"You've raised a very good question," he said. "We were just going through the motions, it was on the agenda, we approved it. I don't know."
He added that "I would be happy to do it again on the 14th."
Overson said budget director Nelson Williams was the one who put the item on the agenda. Williams was unavailable for comment at press time.
In a three-hour public hearing Friday, the commission heard from residents, county staffers and members of various county boards objecting to the budget that cuts service levels substantially as well as increases taxes.
The commission raised taxes $18 million in the general and municipal services fund to balance the funds through 2000 and 2003, respectively. That translates to a $61 annual property tax increase for the owner of a $164,000 home (average value in the county) living in the unincorporated areas, and $36 for one living in the city.
As Commissioner Randy Horiuchi put it, commissioners have been in "a commission sandwich," angering conservatives by raising taxes and angering others by cutting services.
The health and sheriff's departments were the points of greatest contention, with health board members saying the county's water supply and children's immunizations would be endangered by the $1.8 million cut in the health department's requested budget, and Sheriff Aaron Kennard saying he would be unable to adequately patrol streets and run the new jail at 3300 South and 900 West because of an $8.3 million cut.
Nevertheless, Overson said he didn't hear anything in the hearing that would make him change his mind about the budget. Commissioners have said for some time that departments should expect deep, substantive cuts.
"The operative word here is pain," Horiuchi said.
Proposals in the hearing included such things as simple across-the-board cuts and abandoning the county office complex in favor of housing county workers in Quonset huts.
Wednesday's action was the official end of this round of budget hearings and approvals. Nevertheless, the county will be required to go through the entire process again in June, including a public hearing required by truth-in-taxation laws and reapproval of the budget. That's because the county operates on a calendar budget year, but final certified tax rates are not set and property tax notices don't go out until summer because valuation of property in the county isn't complete until then.
State law requires hearings when notices go out, and it requires the county to approve the official -- as well as projected, as is the case now -- certified tax rates.