Utah County has a serious problem with white collar crime – and with a county commission majority and county attomey who aren’t terribly concerned about it. The point was driven home to Utah County taxpayers last week when Utah Atty. Gen. David Wilkinson told the county Republican Women he plans to open a satellite office in Provo to deal with land and investment schemes. The state’s chief legal officer says Utah County has the highest rate of illegal land deals, investment scams and other swindles in the state. I-le noted it’s the county attomey’s responsibility to deal with such crimes, but the Utah County Att0mey’s office has neither the staff nor the budget to carry out its responsibilities in that area. The reasons for the problem are twofold: First a majority of the Utah County Commission has been reluctant to give the county attorney enough money to do the job right. That’s understandable to a degree. These are hard times, and many agencies face extinction or severe cutbacks. But in the past. the commissioners have threatened the county attorney with budget cuts if he pursued challenges to land use decisions he considered illegal. That gives the voters just cause to wonder whether the commission majority’s frugality is the result of tough economic times or how much reflects the antiplanning commission majority’s desire to keep the attorney out of enforcement activities they consider philosophically odious. The second issue rests with the county attorney, who is a part-time official. Prosecuting land use violations – such as the recently discovered. 374 illegal land deals in Cedar Valley – and other investment scams in the county is a complex, demanding job. it may be hdifficult to fault the county attorney for devoting his limited resources to felonies and street crime, given current circumstances. But voters have a right to question how readily the county attorney accepted those circumstances. He has been a little too quick to say why he can’t take on white collar crime and a little too slow to look for ways around the circumstances, If we are to be a nation of laws rather than of men, we can’t pick and choose the laws we are to enforce, People can club other people over the head and take their wallets, or they can sell people land and bogus securities under false pretenses. The effect on the victim is the same. The resolution of the issue falls to the voters and taxpayers who stand to be victimized. Do they want county commissioners who prefer only the personally convenient laws enforced and the inconvenient ones ignored? Do they want a county attorney who considers his job a sideline and who isn’t willing to fight for the tools he needs to do it right’! The voters can answer those questions at the next election or defer the decision until they fall victim to the next white-collar scam.