Extra November Election Costs Likely to Fall on State and Counties

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) It remains unclear exactly how state and local officials will divvy up the three-point-five-million dollars it will cost to hold a special election on vouchers in November. Though one thing is clear, says Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert:

"It will be the taxpayers," says Herbert. "The only question is gonna be whether the taxpayers will pay through the cities, through the counties or through the legislature."

Later this week city and county election officials will meet with Herbert to parse the funding issues. Every city had already planned to hold an election this November, though in most cases the races were not citywide. Lincoln Shurtz of the Utah League of Cities and Towns says the League's members have been promised a reimbursement for the extra expense:

"The cities feel very comfortable with the arrangement that they currently have with the Legislature right now," says Shurtz. "The Legislature has committed to only requesting what cities have budgeted for their municipal elections."

If cities spend only what they'd budgeted, the state and counties will be left with the rest of the price tag. But none of Utah's counties planned on or budgeted for a November election. Salt Lake County estimates it will cost half a million dollars to put the voucher question to its unincorporated areas not covered by city ballots.

Lieutenant Governor Herbert hopes within 30 days to have worked out a funding compromise.

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