Towns vote to leave county service area

Residents of Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain overwhelmingly voted themselves out of the county service area.

They were being taxed by the county for law enforcement, fire protection and planning services, but they were also taxed by their towns for the same services."They are being double taxed," said County Assessor Claude C. Richards. "By law they have to, by initiative, go on their own."

Each town plans to provide the services itself or contract for them.

County Commissioner David Gardner said Tuesday evening it would have been simpler to have written in an exclusion from the county service areas when the towns incorporated.

Saratoga Springs residents voted 74 percent in favor of the initiatives.

Ninety percent of Eagle Mountain residents approved the initiatives in unofficial but complete results released by Utah County late Tuesday.