Is the Equestrian Park a good use of taxpayer dollars?

We have switched to a new blog format and you can find the most recent post about the Equestrian Park here.

What should be the future of the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park? The taxpayers of Salt Lake County subsidize the Equestrian Center in South Jordan $900,000 per year. Is that the highest and best use of this area and our taxpayer dollars? During the budget session last December I asked that our Community Services Department, which oversees the Equestrian Park, to prepare cost alternatives for the Equestrian Center.

The Equestrian Center has been steadily losing more and more money every year. The County realized a few years ago that something needed to change since taxpayers’ operating subsidy was increasing, so it awarded a contract to the very capable SMG management company. SMG currently operates the Salt Palace, South Towne Expo Center, and several equestrian centers around the country. Even after almost two years under SMG’s management, the park is still on pace to lose millions more.

There are significant issues with the park that are beyond SMG’s control. There is a serious concern with deferred maintenance. Over the next five years infrastructure investments from $3.5 to $4.5 million will be needed, including new stalls. As if the millions in deferred maintenance isn’t enough, millions more are needed for the construction of a new building on site to make the park a more attractive place to hold events.

Whenever I vote on anything that comes before the council or evaluate a County program, I ask myself, “Is this the proper role of government?” Our parks and recreation department is there to promote health and well-being for the residents of Salt Lake County, which is a worthy cause. We try to provide recreational activities to help keep our community active and healthy. We don't provide opportunities for every person's individual recreational preferences. What about water sports? What about snowmobiling? There are plenty of fun recreational activities, but taxpayers shouldn't and can't fund everything. We put tax dollars into amenities that are in high public demand, make fiscal sense, and encourage families to have healthy lifestyles. That is something we will need to look at as we explore options for this facility.

Parks preserve open space and are visited hundreds of thousands of times a year and can be used by all of Salt Lake County’s 1.1 million residents. Our golf courses are some of the best managed in the state and, in addition to preserving open space, turn a profit. The County subsidizes parks, on average, $5,000 per year per acre. The Equestrian Park is a revenue generator, but is being subsidized at $7,500 per acre. That is 50 percent more than the County subsidizes an acre of a public park.

Some may say that we should just invest in the Equestrian Park so that it will turn a profit. We will be looking at this, but preliminary numbers show we would have to put millions into the facility. Denver has a great Equestrian Center. Some have said we should invest in something similar for Salt Lake County. Denver put over $800 million dollars into their center.

I've had people say that the Equestrian Center provides other economic benefits that we just aren't considering - hotels, restaurants, shopping. We will have the economic impact measured in the coming months, but preliminary studies show there is a neglible economic impact. We are continuing to explore this.

Whenever an organization or program is overseen by Salt Lake County or any government we must continually review what the highest and best use of taxpayer dollars is and let that guide our response. I know the Equestrian Park is an important place for some of our Salt Lake County residents. We are looking for some answers and will be anxious to see the upcoming recommendations by the Mayor's staff in April. They will give us several scenarios and the fiscal impact of each. Personally, I will be doing all I can to keep this area open space. We will have more info in coming months.

Click here to read the Deseret News article on this issue

Fox 13 coverage of the Equestrian Park

Here is the budget line item showing the $900,000 subsidy:

Some people didn't believe that the Equestrian Park was really losing so much money, so I've included the actual 2016 budget:

Urban County Caucus

Several months ago I was talking with some colleagues about the role of Salt Lake County within the Utah Association of Counties (UAC). This conversation continued at the annual UAC conference when I asked county commissioners from Davis, Weber, and Utah counties if they would be willing to meet as a group of urban counties to discuss unique challenges that come with larger populations. They accepted my invitation and several other counties also wanted to be involved – Washington, Cache, Uintah, Tooele and Summit.

Two months later UAC and Salt Lake County hosted our first Urban County Caucus meeting on January 20. Governor Herbert attended and even brought Lt. Governor Spencer Cox with him. We had the opportunity to talk about criminal justice issues, Medicaid expansion, and economic development. Representative Eric Hutchings also attended to talk about the Justice Reinvestment Act. I was elected as chair of the new Urban County Caucus and will be continuing conversations with these counties so we can learn from each other.

UAC has been a valuable partner with counties in the past and with all 29 counties as members, it’s a great place to speak with a unified voice when fighting for a particular issue. But because Utah has such a diverse geography, it means that each of the counties have different concerns as well. For example, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and Utah Counties have very little public lands (with the exception of some National Forest lands), but to the south, east, and west of us, virtually all of the state is owned by the federal government. Those counties don’t have the same criminal justice, public safety, transportation, and growth issues that the larger counties face. While our issues may be different, it’s nice that we can support each other and speak with a unified voice at the Legislature.

Here is the SL Tribune article on this event.

I also interviewed with Utah Policy about the Urban Caucus.

Criminal Justice Funds Allocated by Council

During our budget discussions, the Salt Lake County Council passed a tax extension for criminal justice reform. This $9.4 million from the expired jail bond had $3.4 million appropriated during the budget to fund part of the sheriff and DA's budgets. The council wanted to allocate the remaining $6 million for criminal justice reform.

Council Member Jenny Wilson and I organized a two-day retreat on January 12 and 13. We brought together the Council, Mayor, DA, judges, mental and behavioral health specialists, and the Sheriff for a roundtable discussion to align our priorities. Throughout the retreat we agreed that we needed to focus on evidence-based outcomes for all criminal justice programs. We also know that taxpayer resources are scarce and we needed to make sure that we got a return on our investment by focusing on the root causes of recidivism. After a lot of discussion, we came to a general consensus of how to prioritize some of these criminal justice funds:

$100,000 to audit, evaluate and develop options to oversee Indigent Defense contracts

$1.5 million for the Recidivism Pay for Success initiative

$1.5 million for the Homelessness Pay for Success initiative

$200,000 for the Community Corrections Center and Receiving Center planning process

In two weeks we will hear from our sheriff and behavioral health director and look at which programs the remaining $2.7 million should go to. I've been an advocate of more detox beds, mental health and substance abuse programs in conjunction with probation, and data to make sure the money we put into programs is making a difference.

This will be an annual process where we identify our criminal justice priorities and allocate funds each year for specific programs and processes to help with our major jail overcrowding problem and high rate of recidivism. I am grateful we have such great criminal justice experts in our county to help us look ahead and improve in this arena.

Here is the Salt Lake Tribune article on this issue.

SL County Council Passes Resolution Encouraging Citizens to Attend Caucuses on March 22

Today the Salt Lake County Council passed a resolution encouraging county facilities and programs to make accommodations for citizens to attend their neighborhood caucus on Tuesday, March 22.

The resolution, sponsored by Republican Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton, aims to make it as easy as possible for residents to clear their schedules and attend these grassroots political meetings where delegates are elected. These delegates may choose their party’s nominees in offices ranging from county mayor and council members to state legislators and governor. Thousands of Republicans and Democrats all across the state attend caucuses held every two years. Both parties will be having their caucus meetings on March 22, and some will be holding presidential primary elections that night.

“Neighborhood caucuses allow every voter a chance to participate in the most grassroots political process that we have,” said Newton. “Salt Lake County won’t have scheduled rec games that night, county-sponsored library events, or other programs that could create a conflict.”

With bi-partisan council support, and support from the mayor’s office, county departments have adjusted programs and facilities to be able make it easier for voters to attend caucuses, but facilities will still remain open as usual.

In addition to Salt Lake County taking steps to make caucuses more accessible, the resolution also encourages other governmental entities within Salt Lake County to limit activities and events on March 22 to allow the residents an opportunity to attend.

Thanks to my Democrat colleague, Arlyn Bradshaw, for jumping on board to help sponsor this resolution.

AAA Bond Rating

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams praised his fiscal management team and the Salt Lake County Council after receiving notice that Fitch Ratings, a national ratings firm, has assigned new, higher financial ratings to Salt Lake County bonds, including its transportation tax revenue bonds and its sales tax revenue bonds. Salt Lake County is one of 41 counties nationally—among 3,140 overall—to earn this distinction.

“This confirms the county’s financial health and also sends a strong signal that we’re a good long-term investment. It speaks to our determination to be a government with a fiscally-responsible balance sheet and a careful eye on budgets,” said Mayor McAdams.

Chief Financial Officer Darrin Casper says the county has been notified by Fitch Ratings that not only will it retain its triple-A rating on its general obligation bonds, but that several categories have been upgraded to either AA+ or AAA. Casper said that with such an excellent credit score, Salt Lake County will pay less interest and save taxpayer dollars when it enters the market with an upcoming issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $22 million as the second stage of parks, trails and open space expenditures. Salt Lake County voters approved a $47 million parks and trails bond measure during a 2012 election.

“Salt Lake County remains one of the top 41 counties nationwide for financial strength.  Sound, conservative fiscal policies have made this possible, along with prudent financial management by elected officials of both parties and our competent staff,” said County Council Chairman Richard Snelgrove.

“I’m proud of our fiscal management team. They serve the taxpayers well in how they manage governmental operations and the financial world clearly is taking notice,” said McAdams. “Once again, Salt Lake County is demonstrating what it means to be a thriving metropolitan area that focuses on efficient and responsive government.”

See the SL Trib article on this great news!

Salt Lake County Council passes the 2016 budget!

Over the past few weeks the Salt Lake County Council has been scrutinizing the budget. We approved $2.1 million in cuts and included funding for indigent defense, deferred maintenance, and criminal justice reform.

Tonight the council finalized and passed the budget for 2016. Our total budget is $1.1 billion. Much of those funds are pass-through dollars, so our general fund is around $304 million.

Salt Lake County is seeing an increase in jail bookings and we let 8000 criminals per year walk because of lack of space. Building and operating more jail beds is very expensive, so as a county we are looking for ways to reform criminal justice. Because there are so many criminal justice needs, the council considered extending a tax that was instituted for the jail bond 20 years ago. The bond is paid off at the end of this year and would free up $9.4 million.

If there was no tax extension, residents would get $18 back annually because of the jail bond. This extension means there is no tax increase, but residents won’t get a refund, either.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the Salt Lake County Council have been working on criminal justice reform through a bipartisan effort. We have been working together to make sure tax dollars are spent wisely and public safety needs are met.

These are my comments from the final budget meeting tonight:

"I came to our budget meeting a few weeks ago with a list of $4 million in proposed cuts to the budget. My goal was two-fold – first, to fund indigent defense and deferred maintenance in information technology. Second, my goal was to be able to move the sheriff and DA’s budgets out of this $9.4 million amount for criminal justice reform.

We were able to do some of these things, but not all. I know it’s not popular to continue a tax that some thought was promised to end. I don’t think 20 years ago anyone could’ve imagined that mental health issues would be so problematic, that the severity of crimes would be increasing at such an astonishing rate, and that we would have such a serious drug problem threatening our society.

Public safety is our number one responsibility. Last week I considered not voting to continue the tax, but as the days went on, my gut said otherwise. I believe it would be irresponsible to not spend the money necessary to find long-term solutions to this problem. How easy it would be to tell my conservative base that I will not raise taxes, and yet how completely sick I would feel to look away and pretend we don’t have the problems that we do while criminals roam free on our streets, and while we continue to have four-month long waiting lists for substance abuse treatment.

It is less expensive and more fiscally responsible to help people with substance abuse and mental health issues, than it is to lock them up. So I make my decision tonight based on the future – my children and your children’s future. If we continue to kick the can down the road, nothing will change, and our problems will only get worse and more expensive. I am asking the people of Salt Lake County to support us as we continue this tax – approximately $18 per year for the average homeowner – to reform our criminal justice system."

Last week Councilman DeBry and I spoke about our aversion to taking taxpayer dollars without a set purpose. We have heard from our constituents that they would like to see us make more cuts before keeping their hard-earned dollars for criminal justice reform. So tonight we proposed a half million dollars in additional cuts. We also extended the tax and allocated the $9.4 million for criminal justice reform to fund the following:

1.     A receiving center so we can assess and then refer mental health and substance abusers and get them into treatment to lighten the load of the jail.

2.     Mental health and substance abuse programs that coordinate with probation.

3.     Prioritize the opening of a Community Corrections Center in 2017.

4.     A data program that allows us to compare jail bookings with participation in behavioral health services to determine evidence-based results in reducing recidivism.

I am grateful for the many constituents who contacted my office to find out what was going on with this issue. I am also grateful for those who took my criminal justice survey. Over 80 percent said they would rather see money go for programs than more jail beds. Over 60 percent said they prefer we make cuts and extend the tax this year, rather than doing it next year or looking at more costly measures down the road.

Here is the Salt Lake Tribune article that gives more information about what happened.

Should the Salt Lake County Council extend the jail bond tax to pay for criminal justice reform?

This is one of the most important issues we have faced since I began my service on the council - criminal justice reform.

Our number one priority is public safety. Since the jail is the single largest drain on the budget, it is something I believe we need to closely scrutinize. We are seeing an increase in jail bookings and because we don't have room for everyone, we let 600 people per month walk. Operating more jail beds is very expensive, so as a county we are looking for ways to reform criminal justice. That may include having a receiving center with a magistrate who can quickly make decisions on where people need to be. It may include more detox beds so we aren't using precious jail space for those who just need an overnight detox. It may include opening another pod at Oxbow Jail. It may include more mental health and substance abuse programs to rehabilitate, so people don't keep cycling in and out of jail. It could also include building a community corrections center to help us do this.

Because there are so many needs in this arena, the council is looking at extending a tax that was instituted for the jail bond 20 years ago. The bond is paid off at the end of this year and would free up $9.4 million for criminal justice reform.

We have some real needs to address. I began by proposing $4 million in cuts to the Salt Lake County budget. (You can read about that here.) Avoiding wasteful spending is one of my priorities, and so is investing in the future so we can save tax dollars down the road. Criminal justice reform is something that is critical.

I want to hear from you! Please answer these two questions on my survey and let me know YOUR thoughts. You can also leave comments below.

Aimee's Criminal Justice Survey

(As a side note, some of my constituents received a post card in the mail about this issue, funded by an out-of-state special interest group. It has misinformation such as, "Salt Lake County wants to hike taxes yet again!" (We haven't raised taxes since I have been on the council, and I believe the last tax increase was in 2012.) The flyer says this would be the third tax increase this year, but doesn't specify who the other tax increases were from. They were not from Salt Lake County. It also says that the tax extension will increase taxes by $9.4 million per year. (It is an extension, not a new tax, so taxes will not increase by that amount.) Don't believe everything you read in the paper, or in the mailbox!)