Mitigation fees paid by hazardous waste businesses and a landfill facility in Tooele County were up this year by 18 percent. Among county government department heads that would be cause for celebration were the increase — the first increase in mitigation fees since 2005 — not coming at a time when the county’s budget has been cut by almost 15 percent.

But let’s step back from this recent data to take a broader, more philosophical look at mitigation fees. For years now, county residents have been told what’s good for the hazardous waste industry is good for the county. We’re meant to cheer when fees go up and lament when they go down. Part of the reason for that is the vital role those fees have come to play in funding county government. This year, mitigation fees comprised roughly a third of the county’s general fund budget.

But mitigation fees have proven to be cruelly capricious. Through the first part of the decade it looked as if the sky was the limit for these fees. Then they peaked in 2005 at $13.3 million before falling to less than half that level by 2008. Those fluctuations can be hard to budget around. How do you tell seniors they can only get the services they need if EnergySolutions has a good year? How do you tell the sheriff he can hire additional deputies to keep pace with population growth, but only if EG&G destroys more mustard agent than it did last year?

The county’s biggest mistake might have been including mitigation fees in general fund revenues in the first place. Rather than treating the fees as extraordinary income that could be used solely to finance capital projects, for example, county officials began to rely on the funds to provide basic services. That was the first step to dependency.

We believe the county should start weaning itself off mitigation funds now. The time has never been better because — last year notwithstanding — the long-term future of those fees doesn’t appear bright. Last year’s increase was mainly driven by a spike in the amount of munitions destroyed by EG&G at Deseret Chemical Depot. But EG&G plans to be finished destroying its weapons stockpiles within the next two years. Meanwhile, EnergySolutions officials have admitted they probably won’t ever again hit the heights, revenue-wise, that they did at Clive in 2005. It’s hard to argue with that prediction, given that the company is opposed on each new waste stream it proposes to bring in by most of the state’s residents and political leadership. It’s also hard to see new companies setting up in the hazardous waste corridor in light of the current political climate.

So where does that leave Tooele County government? Dependent upon a dwindling source of revenues while continuing to preach the mantra that what’s good for the hazardous waste industry is good for the county? There’s a better way, one employed by ordinary folks every day: Live within your means, set extra money aside, and make sure you can reliably pay for what’s most important to you.