Summit County’s 2025 budget adds 16 new county employees, five of them school resource officers. Public safety, which includes emergency medical services, makes up a third of the spending plan.
The county added $800,000 to its bottom line after renegotiating a mental health service contract with the University of Utah. In the previous agreement, the U said it was losing at least $1 million a year.
Planned revenues and expenditures will be balanced by a new 0.5% emergency services sales tax voters approved in November.
Councilmembers requested one change before unanimously approving the budget: a 3% one-time pay bump for elected officials, who previously only received a cost-of-living adjustment.
“Our treasurer, Corrie Forsling, sent an email earlier speaking to an oversight that happens where there are also elected officials that manage whole departments with people, staff, really important roles within the county,” Councilmember Canice Harte said Dec. 11. “Quite often, they don’t receive the merit. They just receive the COLA.”
Other department heads like those over health, lands and planning, get up to a 3% pay bump every year depending on the county manager’s review of their performance.
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
