Salt Lake County tweaks budget, cuts $11 million

Salt Lake County approved Tuesday Mayor Peter Corroon's midyear budget adjustments, cutting $11 million in spending, restructuring the administration and saving the average homeowner some money.

The budget cuts about $4 million from the county's fleet and $6 million from the sanitation divisions.

A large part of the sanitation cuts comes from loss of revenue at the county landfill and from the incorporation of Cottonwood Heights, which

cost the county about $5 million.

The county also approved Corroon's proposal to create a new Administrative Services Department, gathering divisions such as personnel, fleet and records under the umbrella of the new office in an attempt to reign in scandal and reductions at the county.

County finance officials predict the county will see an overall increase in revenue of about $1.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which is below its projections when this year's budget was first passed. Those declines come in part because of value reductions in airlines, telecommunications companies and railroads.

The council approved an overall property tax rate of 0.2390 percent, a reduction from 2004's rate of 0.2511 percent. That will be assessed on the approximately $50.8 billion of taxable property in the county.

The new budget will create a separate fund for the Salt Lake Valley Fire District to fund the Unified Fire Authority. That fund used to be part of the municipal services budget, but council members wanted to make it clear that that portion of taxes — a tax rate of 0.1746 percent — is going to fire protection. Councilman Randy Horiuchi said it will give more visibility to the public as to where money is being spent.

The overall tax rates, including the countywide taxes as well as municipal service taxes, the fire district, library taxes and others, will result in owners of a $195,000 home seeing a yearly property tax reduction of $30.99, from $674.50 in 2004 to $643.51 this year.

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