Salt Lake County passes budget with no tax increase

Every year Salt Lake County’s budget is written and presented by the mayor in a public meeting. This year the state auditor required all taxing entities (state auditor alert 2014-3) to put all pass-through monies on their books. For example, Salt Lake County collects sales taxes that go directly to UTA, and now those taxes will be a part of the official budget. This means that $210,092,453 will be added to this year’s budget, making the total proposal $1.1 billion.

After the mayor made his presentation on October 28th, the county council considered changes during budget workshops over the past month. This year as the council scrutinized the budget proposal, I found some items worthy of note:

-This budget contains no tax increase and is fiscally conservative.

-The Dashboard Project: This will be a real-time platform where citizens can see data and progress that various departments within the county are making. We will be able to see real evidence of what works and what doesn’t. This project focuses on positive outcomes and making the best use of tax dollars.

-Pay for Success: This is performance-based contracting between government and social service providers, where government only pays providers if target outcomes are achieved.

-This budget provides $40 million in deferred maintenance.

-County employees will receive a 2.75% average merit increase.

-Nearly $20 million of new funding requests were cut.

You can view the budget that the mayor proposed.

Here is the article from the Salt Lake Tribune on the budget.

Salt Lake County one of four winners in ‘New Ideas Challenge’

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams was honored at an awards ceremony today for winning the NewDEAL (Developing Exceptional American Leaders) “New Ideas Challenge 2014” for the category “best public-private partnership.”  The awards were presented by Delaware Governor Jack Markell, honorary chair of the NewDEAL.

Salt Lake County’s entry was the pilot program that expanded voluntary, high-quality preschool to 600 economically disadvantaged children in the Granite School District. The county partnered with United Way of Salt Lake, Voices for Utah Children and Goldman Sachs.

“At a time of national gridlock, I’m proud that Salt Lake County is showing how—in a bipartisan way—we can solve problems, providing families with an opportunity to participate in this ‘game-changing’ effort.  Another important result is that we’re saving taxpayer dollars by partnering with both the private and the nonprofit sectors to fund this innovative initiative,” said Mayor McAdams.

The first ever New Ideas Challenge gives recognition to smart, pro-growth solutions that are being developed and tested by state and local leaders all across the country. All of the idea submissions are viewable at a new website unveiled today – www.newdealleaders.org.

McAdams said Salt Lake County was selected out of sixty submissions by an esteemed panel of judges who are recognized as thought leaders in the policy arena. McAdams is a member of the NewDEAL. More about the county’s pay for success preschool initiative can be found here.

The Funds and Structure of the County Budget

By Office of Township Services

The county organizes its finances using a series of funds, which consist of sums of money set aside for a particular activity, program, or purpose. Salt Lake County has specific funds for most of its functions: for example, one fund is dedicated specifically to the County Library System, while another is dedicated to the Department of Health. There are a number of different types of funds, depending on their structure and purpose.

Governmental funds are those used for most county activities. These funds are dedicated towards services such as flood control, housing services, grant programs, and the aforementioned libraries and health department. One of the most important funds in this category is the Municipal Services Fund, which is used to provide municipal services to the townships of Millcreek, Kearns, Magna, Copperton, Emigration Canyon, and White City, as well as other areas of the unincorporated county. By far the largest governmental fund, however, is the General Fund, which accounts for almost 30% of the county budget. The General Fund is used to pay for everything that isn’t already accounted for in other funds.

The other major types of funds are proprietary funds and fiduciary funds. Proprietary funds are used to maintain programs that don’t operate like public government services. For example, internal service funds are used to provide services to other parts of the county rather than the general public, such as facilities management for county buildings. Enterprise funds are used to run entities that operate like private businesses under the ownership of the county, such as the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District. Fiduciary funds are held by the county, but come from (and are used for the benefit of) other entities, such as funds provided by the state that are used to assist in state tax collection.

The revenue sources for each fund vary, depending on their purpose and structure. The General Fund is mainly provided for by property taxes, while the ZAP Fund uses a 0.1% sales tax. Business-type programs such as county golf courses are usually paid for through fees, sales, and revenue that they collect themselves. Sometimes funds can overlap: both the General Fund and the Tourism, Recreation, Cultural and Convention Facilities fund help pay for county recreation facilities.

Not all of the money in a certain fund can be spent in a year. The county requires each fund to keep a minimum percentage of their money out of the budget, so that county programs can be prepared for every eventuality. 10% of the general fund and 5% of most other funds are kept in reserve in case of emergency, economic downturn, or revenue declines. This fiscal responsibility helps the county maintain a AAA bond rating.

This financial structure is integral to ensuring that the county is responsible with its money.

Where does Salt Lake County get funding?

By SLCO Township Services

Last month Mayor Ben McAdams submitted his 2015 budget proposal. As each step of the budgeting process moves forward, this week we’ll be discussing where the county’s income comes from.

The county’s main source of funding is property taxes, levied on land, buildings, and some forms of private property (such as business equipment or construction machinery) owned throughout the valley. The county assessor keeps careful records of these properties and their value in order to determine taxable value for each property owner. In June of each year, the County Council adopts tax rates and the County Treasurer bills and collects property taxes.  These funds are then used for county programs such as the health department, economic development projects, infrastructure creation and maintenance, or the administration of county government.

The county government isn’t the only entity that receives funding from property taxes; school districts, and city governments, also levy taxes on property. The Treasurer is also responsible for collecting taxes for other government entities in Salt Lake County.

Salt Lake County also levies sales taxes, including a 0.1% tax for the Zoos, Arts, and Parks (ZAP) program and a .25% tax that goes into the county’s general fund. This means that for every $10 that is spent within the county, one cent helps to pay for arts, cultural, and recreation programs, while two and a half cents are spent on various county expenses.

Most programs run by the county are not self-sustaining and do rely on tax money to maintain current service levels. Examples include Wheeler Farm, Parks and Recreation, Clark Planetarium, and the Health Department. Many of these programs draw part of their funding from fee revenue, meaning that they don’t have to rely entirely on taxpayers for support.

The 2015 Proposed Budget is structurally balanced and does not feature a tax increase. To help maintain structural balance, the few new requests that were included were funded via re-prioritization.

Mayor Presents 2015 Budget to Council

Yesterday Mayor McAdams presented his 2015 budget to the Salt Lake County Council. This $1.1 billion dollar budget will be debated over the coming weeks and a final budget approval will be made by the County Council before the end of the year.

We were happy to hear that no tax increase is being proposed. A merit increase of 2.75% for county employees is included.

You can read what the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News had to say about the proposal. More info in coming weeks on the budget process and decisions made by elected officials.

Pornography Addiction Pilot Program

As I’ve talked with constituents about issues in the community, one issue that keeps surfacing is pornography addiction in our youth. Studies show that 100% of our youth will be exposed to pornography before they graduate from high school. The porn industry is targeting children and youth, knowing that once they are addicted they will continue to fund this industry as adults.

Since Salt Lake County has a Behavioral Health department and the County Health department, I recently introduced them to a non-profit group called “Fight the New Drug.” 

“Fight the New Drug” has been featured in The Washington Post, Nightline, CNN, and The Huffington Post, and has presented assemblies in schools throughout the nation. They talk about pornography addiction, not from a moral standpoint, but in how pornography affects brain chemicals, relationships and society. These assemblies receive rave reviews as this group takes a very difficult subject and addresses it without being explicit or making it uncomfortable. It is not sex ed, but rather a simple explanation on how pornography works in the brain. You can visit fightthenewdrug.org for details. 

My goal is to have "Fight the New Drug" assemblies in every middle school, junior high and high school in Salt Lake County. We are piloting this program next month in Taylorsville so all stake holders can see what “Fight the New Drug” does and what their assemblies are all about. Bennion Jr. High and Eisenhower Jr. High will host assemblies on October 20. On October 21, Taylorsville High School will have two assemblies for their students. On October 21 at 7 p.m. a community meeting for parents, grandparents and others who may be interested will be held at Taylorsville High School (5225 S. Redwood Rd.) to discuss how to best talk to youth about this issue. 

Fight the New Drug also has a free, anonymous, online recovery program called “Fortify” that would be available to our county residents at no cost.

I anticipate we will need $100,000 to have “Fight the New Drug” in every middle school, junior high and high school in Salt Lake County over the next two years. I have private donors who are paying for this pilot program, and will continue fundraising to obtain additional private donors to fund other schools. There may be an opportunity for funding through a Behavioral Health RFP which will be going out at the end of the year. I will not be asking to add anything into the county budget. In some schools PTA’s fund these kinds of assemblies, but I would like to make sure it’s available in every school, no matter the financial situation.

We've already had some communities approach us with a desire to bring this assembly to their schools. Sandy City, for instance, said they would help fund this. A few years ago their Healthy Sandy committee hosted a “Fight the New Drug” parent meeting. Gordon Johnson, chair of Healthy Sandy said, “We had a full house when we held this meeting at Alta High and received rave comments. I was sitting by Greg Miller, CEO of the Miller organization who, like others in the audience, said it was outstanding.” He added, “Our city has identified pornography as a very serious problem that we need to aggressively combat and we consider the "Fight the New Drug" campaign to be one of the most effective ways of doing so.”

Get on board with our effort! There is a link to the side of this blog where you can donate funds which will go directly to "Fight the New Drug" to fund our county schools initiative.

Watch this video to see what Fight the New Drug assemblies are all about.

We appreciate KSL 5 for their news coverage of our efforts, as well as ABC 4's great news story.

SLCO Public Works affects all of us

Did you know that if all of unincorporated Salt Lake County were one city it would be the second largest city in the state? Salt Lake County government has the responsibility of acting as the public works department for all of unincorporated county. And if you think your city doesn’t rely on the county for any public works services, think again (although not listed below, Salt Lake City does contract with the county for Animal Services, a division of Public Works). This department does a fantastic job in providing services that all county residences enjoy. The graphic below shows which service every city in the valley receives from the county:

The Operations division works hand-in-hand with virtually every city in the county to ensure that traffic signals work, the weeds don’t get overgrown and that roads are maintained and plowed.  Here are some interesting facts that you need to know:

• ·       It is illegal to park your car on the side of the road from November to March because of the danger it causes to snow plows and other drivers when they have to swerve to miss your car. (Although each city has its own ordinances that address this issue.)
• ·       The county makes it a priority to fix a pothole within 48 of it being reported. You can find their contact information here.
• ·       The county keeps a list of pavement projects that need to be completely redone or touched up. You can find out about where your street is on the list by clicking here or calling 385-468-6100.
• ·       Only the highest traffic areas will get paved at night, usually. Noise is the biggest factor, but to do major road projects at night causes lower quality of work because of fatigue and bad lighting. It also is pretty expensive because the county has to pay premium wages.
• ·       If a tree falls in your front yard and blocks some of the street or a roadway and there’s nobody around to hear it….you still have to clean it up. If not, you can be sighted for public nuisance in not clearing the roadway from a tree on your property. 

A special thanks goes out to Public Works Director (and former Taylorsville Mayor from my district) Russ Wall, Operations Director Kevyn Smeltzer, and all of the men and women who keep the county running.