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Show The County Role in Government In these days of "big government" people don't pay too much attention to some of the lesser governmental units. Perhaps the most overlooked of all is the county. Its officials go about their business day in and day out without much publicity. The city gets ample attention and so does the state. Yet the state's 29 counties are vital and are performing an important function in self-government. Utah counties were first established by the General Assembly Assem-bly of the State of Deseret in January 1850. There were six counties originally created. Today there are twenty-nine ranging in population (1950 Census) from 364 persons in Daggett County to 274,000 in Salt Lake and in area from 268 square miles in Davis County to 7,884 square miles in San Juan County. More than one-half of the twenty-nine counties in Utah do not contain a town of more than 2,500 people. At the same time, 77 of the people of the state as a whole live in incorporated in-corporated municipalities. Forty per cent of the people reside in the metropolitan area of Salt Lake City. The over-all population popula-tion density of Utah is 9.2 persons per square mile. The density by counties varies from 0.56 per square mile in Grand and Daggett Counties to 368 persons per square mile for Salt Lake County. The assessed valuation of taxable property in Utah for 1959 was as follows: $1,316, 292,887. Property valuations in Salt Lake County totaled $610,847,384. Three counties, Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber, have combined valuations of $828,-100,000. $828,-100,000. Counties are created by the state to carry out certain activities activi-ties within the boundaries of the county that the Legislature believes can best be carried out under local administration. For example, counties in Utah must care for the poor and the sick; they must build roads with the aid of the county surveyor; they must provide law enforcement through the sheriff's office; the recording of deeds and certain other documents through the recorder's office; and judicial administration through the office (Continued on Page Four) The County Role in Government (Continued from Page 1) of the clerk of court and through the district courts. They must conduct elections, assess property within the county and collect taxes for all units of government. All of these activities are required to be carried on, and county commissioners must levy taxes to raise necessary funds. The Legislature may add to or subtract from these responsibilities respon-sibilities from time to time as state policy demands. And it may provide detailed administrative procedures as it has in some cases, or it may authorize local determination of procedures as it has in others. These are policy questions to be decided by the Legislature, not by the counties or the people of the counties. But the county has come to be recognized by the Legislature Legis-lature as more than an administrative subdivision of the state, created to carry on certain required activities. It is also a unit for local self-government. In this capacity, counties have been granted power to decide whether or not other activities, appropriate ap-propriate to county government, shall or shall not be carried on; and if carried on, counties have power to decide the extent to which the activities shall be performed. The Legislature, for example, authorizes counties to have a public health program, to carry on farm and home demonstration work, to conduct planning and zoning, to maintain a civil defense program, and to provide rural fire protection. Counties may also build and operate roads, airports, libraries, hospitals, and recreational activities. But ; under our statutory framework, whether these activities will be undertaken, and to what extent they will be supported, are matters for local determination. |