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Show Ko Give-No Oat i No Get-No Give COUNTY OFFICIALS have many ma-ny problems to solve in their day-by-day operations. Right now, however, there are three in particular par-ticular with which they are wrestling. wrest-ling. The first has to do with the question what services should be provided? Th next, to whom should they be p .ovided and third, who should pay the bill for the services? ; BY LAW, County government is given aried and diverse responsibilities. re-sponsibilities. Some of these are mandatory while others discretionary. discret-ionary. Year by year, services are expanded and costs increased. increas-ed. The current budget calls for r expenditures of $7,086,351. This is ' a lot of money. It is $2,592,000 or i 57 per cent more than was spent in 1950. And, it looks as if next year's budget will be even higher. MORE COMPLEX, year by year, new services are called for or the expansion of older ones urged. This is to b- erected. In the past 16 years, the total population popula-tion of Salt Lake County has in-; creased from 211,623 to 317,400 or, 50 per cent. In the same period,' the increase outside incorporated j places has been from 42,679 to; 80.000 or very nearly double. It is in this area that new increases are taking place. THERE ARE NW over SO.OOOj persons living in Salt Lake Coun- ty outside of incorporated cities and towns. These residents require re-quire and demand virtually all (This COULDNT be right!) boundaries. The vexing question confronting our County Commis-i sioners is who is going to pay; the bill? This is really a difficult, problem to solve but certain basic j principles are involved if injustice injust-ice and unfairness are to be avoided. av-oided. BASIC PRINCIPLES. This is a generally accepted principle that should guide our County Commissioners Commis-sioners in the present situation. "Those services of general benefit bene-fit and concern of the entire county coun-ty should be paid for by general taxes imposed on all property in the County. On the other, hand, services provided a given person, group or area exclusively, should - be paid for by those receiving such services." This payment may j be made by taxes, fees or licenses imposed in the respective areas benefited. THERE IS GENERAL AGREEMENT AGREE-MENT that certain county activities activi-ties are of general concern and benefit to all residents of the county whether they live in Salt Lake City, In urban unincorporated unincorporat-ed areas or in the rural districts. Among these, we may mention such services as assessing and collecting col-lecting taxes, welfare, the courts, planning, jails, civil functions of the Sheriff's office, hospital, elections, el-ections, county clerk, recreation, and many other activities which benefit all residents in all areas of the county. These, being of universal uni-versal application, should be paid for by all. OTHER SERVICES are not so clearly defined, such as highways and policing. On the other hand, garbage collection, curb and gutters, gut-ters, fire protection, specialized street lighting and so on. it is felt should be paid for by the recipients. These would come under un-der the flag "No get, no pay-no pay-no pay, no get." THE SOLUTION. The last Legislature Leg-islature provided a means by which these principles could be put into operation, service district law provides that through this agency "those who get, pay and those who do not get the service do not pay." Even in the proposed opending wedge to provide for garbage collection in the urban - rural areas and fire protection for county regions outside out-side organized municipalities, many ma-ny hurdles will have to be removed. re-moved. Progress may be reported. report-ed. THIS IS WHAT LOS ANGELES I COUNTY IS DOING in the mat- ter. Garbage collection is paid for by those getting the service. Oth-'ers Oth-'ers do not get and do not pay. FIRE PROTECTION is provided and paid for through five fire protection pro-tection districts in the urban-unincorporated areas. The county government gov-ernment is concerned only with watershed protection. : WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? With the start made in special service organization, there is still much to be done. There are various duplications or parallel paral-lel services carried on by the city and county. The elimination of these, as well as the combining of services can save the over-burdened taxpayer a lot of money. I A start in this direction should be i made -immediately. -The old horse and buggy organizations should be replaced by streamlined service. serv-ice. Not only should those who get pay but those who pay should get full vaiue. UTAH TAXPAYERS ASS'N1 |
