Tax increase too large
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon's plan to increase county property taxes by 17.5 percent is an outrage. The County Council's decision to boost taxes by 16.2 percent is only marginally better ("Salt Lake County cuts barely dent proposed tax hike," Tribune, Nov. 27).
Any double-digit tax hike will damage the economic recovery, particularly in combination with looming spikes in federal taxes. A 5 percent county bump would be justifiable, but anything beyond that is not.
The county should not try to make up for its budgetary losses during the Great Recession in one huge gulp. Smaller bites of the apple over several years would be more digestible and more defensible.
Paul Wetzel
Salt Lake City