Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Carroon has a web ad up that is must see viewing for all residents of Utah.

His choice of words is amusing at best - pathetic at worst....

Corroon, who will face Herbert in November's special gubernatorial election, said Herbert relied on "rosy projections" and "fuzzy math" to balance the state budget.

...when you consider that Utah has long been considered one of the best run states in the country.  But then again, why let something as simple as FACT get in the way of a good attack ad.  And speaking of train wrecks, let's take a look at the Salt Lake County budget.  Let's not forget that Salt Lake County's budget is so bad right now, they had to institute a new tax on the people of the county in order to provide the most basic of services....POLICE!  You see, like their counterparts in Minneapolis (who fund police out of volatile Local Government Aid), Salt Lake County uses sales tax money to fund the police instead of using a steady financial stream (property taxes) to fund the department.  So in order to avoid "increasing" property taxes, the County introduced a new "fee" on only certain parts of the county in order to pay for the luxury of police protection.  They didn't look at CUTTING anything - oh heavens no!  Why cut, when you can increase taxes on the incredibly wealthy people who live in townships like Magna whose per capital income is a princely $14,355 a year.  Meanwhile, as we speak the county has sanitation workers (whose average income is $35,000 a year) earning double time collecting garbage in the same community on a federal and state holiday(July 4th)!  But no, there is NOTHING we can cut.....

A study of the County's budget indicates that there is a lot room for questions and plenty that can be looked at to cut. While there was a lot of reduction, there were large increases in more than a few budget line items.  For example, the Bond Debt Service budget has gone up a staggering 57.92% and yet almost all of the different individual projects are showing a double (and several triple) digit net reduction or remained the same.  Most of the increase comes from the Herriman library with an eyebrow raising 204% increase.  Then there are the items like the Tracy Aviary Bond fund that went from $0.00 in 2009 to $5.7Million in 2010 - a 100% increase.  Yet that does not show up as an entry in the % Increase column. 

The golf course fund was reduced a paltry 0.02% - why was that not decreased more?  Why is the county even in the BUSINESS of running golf courses?

There are two separate line items for Tourism/Visitor promotion which combined account for $36.1MILLION.  While both saw a net decrease in funding one must ask why there are two funds and why couldn't we have decreased that budget double what was already cut ($9.5Million combined leaving roughly $34Million in the budget)? 

There is a Fine Arts Fund of $2.6million in the budget.  While Fine Arts are nice, they are not a vital part of county government.  If the Sugar House Fireworks display is not a necessity, if vital first services like police protection have to be spun off into it's own revenue generating/self sustaining organization why can't Abravanel Hall or the Rose Wagner Center?  For that matter what about the Planetarium?  That could be spun off too - like the Unified Police Department.....

When people managed to find out about the UPD fee/tax many asked why this tax increase was necessary.  We were told that there was nothing left to cut.  But if garbage collection is still happening on holidays, you know that there is room still for cuts. 

Mayor Carroon tries to talk a good fiscal game.  Sadly for him, there is a very REAL record that people can look at to see just how fiscally responsible he is.  His management of the county budget is going to be an election issue for him and for legislative candidates in the county...and it will most assuredly NOT help.