The cost of rural patrol will get another look in the coming months, now that Kennebunk Town Manager Barry Tibbetts has proposed a shift of those costs.

Tibbetts’ proposal would apportion the cost of sheriff’s office coverage solely to the 14 York County communities that don’t have their own police departments. The change would see the municipalities that use the service, pay for it, he said in an interview this week.

Although the rural patrol focuses on rural, western York County, the sheriff’s office does provide services to the entire county. As Sheriff Maurice Ouellette pointed out, his office provides laboratory services; traffic details; training; serving of protection from abuse and protection from harassment subpoenas; providing members to the countywide evidence response team and the special response team; and regularly works with municipal departments on solving burglaries and other crimes.

The subject of who should pay for what has been more prevalent since a discussion earlier this year that centered around whether the county should pay for two grants to keep deputies working for the York County Sheriff’s Office.

At that time, County Commissioner Gary Sinden said his constituents are struggling to pay for their own police departments and shouldn’t have to foot the bill for rural patrol, too. We editorialized that the matching funds for the contract deputy grants should be committed. Grants are a good deal for towns, and help pay for needs such as roads, bridges, firefighters and police officers at a reduced cost to all taxpayers.

Although every taxpayer may not need the services of their police departments directly, everyone pays so that the officers are there in times of need.

The same principle applies to the county budget and services.

Joe Hanslip, a Sanford councilor and vice chairman of the York County Budget Committee, said this week that the county assesses taxes, not user fees. If user fees are contemplated, he said, the jail, the caseload of the district attorney, and services provided by other county departments should be up for discussion, too.

We agree.

And those discussions are sure to be complicated ”“ and likely messy ”“ especially since a town or city’s use of services will change from year to year.

Every municipality is looking for ways to cut costs, as they should be, but this doesn’t seem like the right avenue. Those same municipalities complain of cost shifting from the state to local level, which is exactly what would happen if Tibbetts’ proposal were approved. The higher-valuation, more-populated communities would be shifting their county taxes to the more rural communities in the county.

While discussion on reducing costs and more fair ways to assess taxes is always welcome, shifting all of the county sheriff’s office rural patrol costs to half the municipalities in the county is not likely to be the best solution.

With a new task force being convened to look at all the costs associated with rural patrol, York County Jail and other YCSO services, we believe the county’s towns will find that they’re already getting a good deal.

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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.