The Heber City Council voted unanimously to raise property taxes and adopt a $62 million budget for the next fiscal year at its meeting Tuesday night, Aug. 20. That’s down from last year’s budget of just under $75 million.
With the new tax rate for 2025, homeowners will see a bump of just over 9% in their property taxes. Heber’s average home value is just under $500,000. For that home, owners will see about an $18 increase in taxes for the year.
A typical business will pay about $32 more for the year.
The additional tax revenue will cover a $278,000 budget deficit city leaders say is from the rising costs of services and the impact of inflation.
At Tuesday’s meeting, about 20 people attended to hear the discussion, raise concerns and give feedback. City councilmembers and staff listened to comments and fielded questions from residents for over an hour before putting the tax increase to a vote.
Heber resident Annie McMullen asked why the city is raising taxes instead of tightening the budget.
She told councilmembers Heber’s cost of living is quickly becoming unmanageable, especially for retired people and those on fixed incomes. She said since she lost her husband, she’s found it harder and harder to make ends meet.
“Keep in mind, a big percentage of your population here is aging,” she said. “It all is piling up on us, and I want to stay here, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. I've spent almost my entire life in the city, and it would be a crying shame to have to be taxed out.”
And she wasn’t alone. Resident Linda Middleton said she also worries steeper taxes will drive longtime locals out of Heber.
“On top of every other entity that has jumped on our backs, this is just one more insult to injury,” she said. “And if those developers get everything sold, and that can reduce our taxes, by that time, a lot of us old retirees are going to have to go to move to Mississippi or someplace where the taxes are not crushing them.”
Councilmember Aaron Cheatwood empathized with locals’ concerns. But he said leaders felt it was better to make an incremental increase now, rather than enact a larger increase in a few years that would be “crippling” to residents.
“I do not want to borrow from a future hope that we won't need something and get further and further behind and end up with a bigger increase that's even harder to stomach down the road,” he said. “I mean, I’m working, I’m young, I’ve got kids that are here, and it’s all more expensive. I understand where you’re coming from.”
Councilmember Yvonne Barney told residents the city is trying to be frugal while navigating major growth.
And City Manager Matt Brower said leaders take cost of living concerns seriously. He said they’ve combed the budget and analyzed expenses to make the tax increase as small as possible.
“Unlike many cities, state governments and the federal government that does incremental budgeting — which is they simply take last year's budget [and] increase it by a percentage — we start from scratch,” he said. “So I think I can say very confidently that despite the 40-year high inflation, we're asking for a very tiny increase. I think that demonstrates really clearly what we've done to try to manage costs to the best extent that we possibly can.”
The decision comes after months of work on the budget. City leaders discussed spending priorities in January and revisited budget drafts at meetings throughout the spring and summer.
Complete details about the newly adopted budget are available on the city's website.
