Police fee system very confusing, not transparent

Transparency isn't always ideal — the back of the refrigerator or the door to the bathroom come readily to mind. Some things are better left, uh, opaque.

But taxes?

I've always thought a see-through tax system was kind of essential to a relationship of trust between government and the people. As a statement by the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts once said, "If taxpayers cannot clearly 'see' their tax burdens, they view the entire system as unfair."

Unless, apparently, the part about seeing clearly comes in the form of a bill every three months.

Here's a startling statistic: More than one-quarter of the people in unincorporated Salt Lake County have failed to pay their new police bill so far. That puts the Unified Police Department budget more than $1 million short.

It turns out taxes are kind of like fashion accessories and Christmas presents — presentation is everything. And Salt Lake County has made a public relations mess of how it presents the cost of providing police services.

Before we venture too far down this road, we'd better make a side trip to the dictionary. Some will say the money the county bills people for police is a fee, not a tax. But seriously, folks, you and I know that's balderdash. Police costs always have come from taxes. And calling this a fee has created no end of trouble and confusion.

It also has diverted attention from the department itself, which has been a major step forward for policing along the Wasatch Front — a place where police departments have at times created more competition than cooperation. Now, for the first time, the county sheriff and four cities act together in a way that gives each entity an equal say in what happens.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder says this system so far has cut 7 percent from the combined costs of policing those areas. But instead of enticing other cities to sign up, the whole thing is in trouble because of the transparent way the county decided to fund it.

The recession has hit the county hard, which led to the decision to move police funding from property taxes to a fee, rather than raising property taxes or making cuts. It was billed as fairer than a tax (churches, for example, have to pay the fee even though they don't pay property taxes), and, of course, more transparent.