13,000 ignore their Salt Lake County police bill

SALT LAKE CITY — A new Salt Lake County bill sent out this spring for law enforcement services in unincorporated areas was ignored by more than a quarter of the 46,000 recipients, leaving the newly formed police district holding the bag on more than $1 million in delinquencies.

But while the rate of non-response to the first wave of charges from the Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Service Area — created to subsidize the county's contribution to the new, cooperative Unified Police Department — was much higher than expected, officials say it's part of the "learning curve" that comes with sending out a bill that residents haven't seen, or paid, before.

They'll meet today to consider cutting a little slack for those delinquent customers in a system where failure to pay can lead to property liens and loss of business licenses.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, one of the three board members for the law enforcement service area, said a "few bumps in the road" may have led to the high rate of non-remittance.

"An initial problem that's been addressed is that the bills were coming in an envelope with an out-of-state return address," Corroon said. "That probably contributed to some confusion. … Others simply may not have realized it was a bill and thrown it out."

Some customers who did recognize the mail as a bill sent along a little something extra with their payments — comments on their feelings about the fee.

One customer said she was "happy to write the check" and thanked the county for choosing a fee over a tax increase "as that provides the flexibility to change with whatever occurs."

One couple remitted their full payment for the year, but included a caveat: "My property taxes have gone up even with the declining value of my home, college education for our sons has increased every year by 10 percent, public schools are cutting back because of budget shortfalls, but they receive more money than ever before, so the bottom line is I pay more for less services."

Others embraced brevity in their weigh-ins: "Its dam (sic) stupid that you are charging us as a community in hard times and you pick an out-of-state business to do your billing for you."

Most of the nearly 13,000 unpaid bills were from residential customers who are being charged about $174 a year by the county for police services in three equal billing cycles of $58. Residential non-payers accounted for $750,000 of the outstanding collections, with delinquent business customers on the hook for the remaining $270,000 or so.