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SALT LAKE CITY -- A bill on Utah's Capitol Hill creates another option for Salt Lake County if lawmakers successfully scrub the controversial Unified Police Department fee.
SB284 gives the county the same power as cities to tax electricity, phone and other utility bills to cover the UPD costs. Two other measures aim to kill the UPD fee.
"If that fee goes away, we would leave probably the second biggest police force in the state of Utah unfunded," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton.
- "If that fee goes away, we would leave probably the second biggest police force in the state of Utah unfunded." -Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton
- "If you don't give us a way to raise money to pay for this essential service, then don't do anything at all and let us figure it out." -Salt Lake County councilman Jim Bradley
- "We'll get it one way or the other. If it's in taxes or a fee, I don't think it's going to change." -Resident Bevan Chamberlain
Stevenson's measure includes a sunset -- 2016 -- and he hopes the bill buys time for a better solution to surface.
"I think it has a pretty good chance of passing," Stevenson told KSL Tuesday.
The architect of the UPD fee now says he's done defending it. Salt Lake County councilman Jim Bradley says he is willing to look at other alternatives at the county level. He still believes the UPD fee is a more open approach than hidden taxes in utility bills.
While he says he is OK with the power Stevenson's bill grants, Bradley says he is irked by lawmakers attempting to intervene and end the fee.
"The long story short here is that if you don't give us a way to raise money to pay for this essential service, then don't do anything at all and let us figure it out," Bradley said.
Bradley says the fee going down at the hands of a legislative action would likely result in the need for an immediate 150 percent increase in property taxes for residents of unincorporated Salt Lake County.
"[Lawmakers] are trying to look good in terms of trying to come up with a solution to a problem that's not even their problem," Bradley said. "It's not their problem, it's a county problem."
Though the fee has been unpopular with many residents, the people in Millcreek Township KSL interviewed on Tuesday questioned what difference SB284 would make for them.
"We'll get it one way or the other," said Bevan Chamberlain. "If it's in taxes or a fee, I don't think it's going to change."
Tina Johnson also acknowledged the measure would essentially do the same thing as the UPD fee.
"It's just changing the system to do the same thing," Johnson said. "Raising taxes in another area just seems more discreet instead of just being up-front."
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
