|
If you read American Police Beat, you already know about the consternation of some taxpayers in Utah who recently received their first bill for policing services. Now one of those residents is hopping mad about the situation and plans to take his case to court. The plaintiff is also a prominent tax attorney. Mark Buchi, a member of the state's Tax Review Commission wants to make it clear that he's not against fees and charges for some government services. Charging a fee for a fishing license, a car registration or a park admission all makes sense he says. But charging American citizens for their own police protection rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
No one likes taxes. But they do have the advantage of keeping the highways and schools open in addition to providing security and public safety in the form of police officers.
Salt Lake County is telling residents and businesses to pay a bill for law enforcement, rather than relying on property or sales taxes. That allows the county to sidestep the rules of traditional taxation in the process.
According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune by Jeremiah Stettler, county officials liked the idea of charging a fee for policing services because it would help them close a multimillion-dollar gap in the general fund for city-like services in communities such as Kearns, Magna and Millcreek.
Instead of raising money through property tax increases, the county decided to charge homes, businesses and even charitable institutions in unincorporated areas different amounts based on how much demand their type of property places on law enforcement.
Under the formula, a church pays less than a Wal-Mart SuperCenter - $1,008 a year compared with $81,912.
An auto dealership foots a smaller bill than a convenience store with gas pumps- $756 compared with $4,548. For its part, the county has pledged to "revisit" the fee when sales taxes recover.
But for now they're sending out the second round of bills. Interestingly, about 13,000 property owners didn't pay their first bill.
The county says the high delinquency rate is the result of the newness of the program and confusion about a Southern California company doing the billing. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed