Mayor's Opposition to Public Safety Bond Mystifies City Council

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Members of the Salt Lake City Council are scratching their heads over Mayor Rocky Anderson's last minute declaration of opposition to the public safety bond on tomorrow's ballot. City Council Vice-Chair Jill Remington Love says Mayor Anderson's office spent most of the year convincing the council of the need for the public safety bond.

"Throughout Rocky's term he surprises us occasionally," says Love. "This is one of those moments and Election Day is tomorrow. We just have to move forward and hope voters will see the need for this (bond)."

Mayor Anderson says he intended to keep quiet about the proposed bond, because he believes the city needs new fire and police facilities. But when asked over the weekend, he declared that wrapping all of the new facilities into a single project is the wrong approach. Tying it to a property tax would burden low-income homeowners while exempting other major property owners, adds Anderson:

"For instance, you've got multi-million dollar hospital corporations - the executives of which are paid many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars over the course of their service," says Anderson. "And they're not paying property tax. They're not contributing at all to fire protection. That's true for all of the churches and government properties, too."

Anderson would prefer to create a citywide fire district and assess every property owner - including nonprofits and churches. He's also a long-time advocate of a commuter tax for people who work in Salt Lake City and use its resources, but live elsewhere.

Councilmember Love says the City Council is still unanimous in its support of the 192-million dollar bond on tomorrow's ballot.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom, Election Coverage, and Election 2007. Copyright 2009 KCPW