Salt Lake's public-safety bond shot down

A hefty price tag and high-profile opposition doomed plans for a $192 million upgrade to police and fire facilities in Salt Lake City.

Election results  » State of Utah Elections Office (Lieutenant Governor's Office)  » Salt Lake County Clerk

Proposition 1, which would have paved the way for five new public safety structures at three locations, was unofficially defeated Tuesday by 291 votes — 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.

Those totals do not include provisional and absentee ballots, which have yet to be counted.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank called the results "disappointing."

"It's unfortunate because it doesn't diminish the need," Burbank said.

About $100 million of the bond was slated to go toward a new public safety building to replace the nearly 50-year-old building at 315 E. 200 South, which public safety officials have called "dilapidated" and even "unsafe."

But the $192 million price tag — and its accompanying property-tax increase of $175 per year on a $300,000 home — likely turned off some voters.

"That was the challenge going in," Burbank said. "We knew that up front that the sticker shock associated with that was significant."

The bond also had a lot of high-profile opponents, including Mayor Rocky Anderson, who jumped on the anti-bond bandwagon Saturday, saying he felt the price tag was too high and unfair because Salt Lake City residents alone would be shouldering the cost while others reaped the benefits.

Anderson specifically pointed to downtown workers who commute from the suburbs and the nonprofits and churches that employ them — most notably The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns a significant portion of property downtown — as groups that should help pay for public safety.

Other opponents included Salt Lake County councilmen Joe Hatch, Randy Horiuchi and Jim Bradley, who criticized the proposal for the "pet projects" attached to the need for a new public safety building. They also wanted city officials to consider the option of an integrated countywide emergency operations center.

The Utah Taxpayers Association also also opposed the bond, with Royce Van Tassell, the nonprofit organization's vice president, calling it a "Christmas wish list of projects."