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SALT LAKE CITY — The organizers of this Saturday's St. Patrick's Day parade in Salt Lake City are begging for donations. They say they must raise cash fast to pay for a new fee.
Organizers say the parade will be held rain or shine Saturday morning at 10. But they are going to be hurting to pay for police. They say the city budget eliminated all money to pay for police at parades but police are still required to be present.
So irishinutah.org is pushing to raise about $4,000 to pay those overtime police salaries. Organizers say it's too much for their limited budget.
Art Raymond, the city council's deputy director of communications said the council made the changes in the budget last year and informed organizers by letter in the fall.
"The number of these events has essentially doubled over the last four to five years, and they recognize an increasing level of cost to Salt Lake City taxpayers," he explained.
"The changes we made were to make the cost of a permit for these events reflect the true cost to the city, and be more of a user fee," he said.