Aug. 16--Next time your Utah legislator tells you "We didn't raise your taxes," you should become huffy.

They did raise them, and not just the vehicle registration "fee" you heard about last March.

They did it for water, and they did it sneakily. One of the things they did was make you pay to complain to your own government.

It wasn't a huge hike, estimated to raise $776,650.

When do you pay? When you have anything to do with water. If you're a rancher, a farmer, an irrigator, an industry digging a well, a city moving a stream, or someone who doesn't like the way industrial users are using the state's water, you pay. If you don't do those things, but drink water or use it to water your lawn, be assured, the cost will be passed on to you.

I found out about this roundabout.

The Friends of Great Salt Lake, an environmental group, likes to file protests over the way industries use water from Great Salt Lake. Those industries have applications on file that could, if all approved, add up to 1.9 million acre feet of water.

"That's a huge hit for that system," said Lynn DeFrietas, head of FOGSL. So imagine her surprise when, while filing her latest complaint, the state Division of Water Rights told her it would cost $15.

Since when does democracy cost $15? Since July 1, when the new budget started.

John Mann, assistant state engineer, said filing a protest "gives you legal standing as a protestant," and court actions usually have filing fees.

Plus, it takes staff time to answer protests. "There's a cost to the division to process these protests, so a fee was implemented to offset the cost."

But isn't it their job to answer protests? Division of Natural Resources spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said some water rights protests can bring in hundreds of letters, especially if FOGSL gets a campaign going.

The big problem, though, seems to be money.

"Truthfully, we wish we didn't have to do it but we are an agency that upward of 70 percent of our budget we have to generate," she said. "We only get 30-plus percent from general fund."

Before this year there was no fee, so how much is this fee raising? Since July 1, she said, the fee has raised $720.

Tammy said the bill that raised the fee was Senate Bill 2, the omnibus budget bill. In looking through it, I noticed that more than the protest fee was raised.

Almost all fees in the Water Rights section of the Division of Natural Resources went up. No other division had such large fee hikes. The boosts were estimated to bring in $766,650.

Assistant state engineer Boyd Clayton said "there was a water issues task force that met last year and one of the issues they've been struggling with was how to get water rights work done more quickly and effectively."

Their fees hadn't been changed since 1994, so the Legislature doubled most and put on new ones, such as that protest fee.

So is the department rolling in dough? Funny you should ask.

When the Legislature looked for things to cut the last session, it noticed that Water Rights had an extra $776,650. The lawmakers cut the division's general fund accordingly, Clayton said, "so we didn't really benefit."

Who did? The Legislature got $776,650 more of our money while being able to claim, with a straight face, that it didn't raise taxes.

Meanwhile, if we want to protest what one agency of our government is up to, we now have to pay.

Don't have $15? Shut up and drink your water.

The Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can reach him at 801-625-4232, or e-mail ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net/ live.

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