If you don't like how your elected officials are serving you or don't approve of decisions they make, you can always vote them out of office.

It happens all the time.

But chances are, residents who are upset when a special district board makes changes or raises property taxes have little recourse beyond voicing disapproval at a public hearing. That is because very few boards of Utah's special districts are elected by the residents of the district they serve.

Draft legislation seeks to change that.

During a meeting of the Utah Legislature's Interim Revenue and Taxation Committee last week, legislators discussed possible legislation that could either keep special service districts from collecting property-tax revenue unless they hold elections to select board members or require them to submit property-tax revenue increases to a vote of district residents.

Committee co-chairman Sen. Wayne Niederhauser R-Sandy, said that government is moving toward greater transparency and needs to be held accountable, and so do special districts.

"These are precious property tax dollars," Niederhauser said. "People who are not directly responsible and accountable to the people are raising your property taxes."

Depending on the service district, board members are generally appointed by city councils, county commissions or the governor.

Some legislators wondered if the electorate is engaged enough to pay attention to board actions or if the legislation would pave the way for too many elected positions.

The proposed legislation likely won't find many friends in the special service districts.

Representatives from various districts packed the committee room in the Capitol Wednesday, though few were given time to address the committee.

Sam Dickson, general manager of the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District, said he doesn't expect that voters would pay much heed to the need for a property-tax increase in November, when elections are normally held, because mosquito season is long over by then.

"We don't have a lot of cheerleaders," he said. "We don't have the cute little animals that the zoo has."

Richard Bay, general manager of the Jordan Valley Water Conservation District, said board trustees are still accountable to the people they represent and that the public hearing process for property taxes works well. The key, though, is that if districts can't collect property taxes, they could lose their ability to execute long-term projects because it would be harder to borrow money through bonding.

Fees would also have to increase to compensate if property-tax revenues were lost, though residents would pay less in property taxes if the districts are barred from collecting them.

But there's also the long-term expertise certain board members have that wouldn't exist if they are routinely voted out of office and there's the expense of running elections, as well.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com