Update, 8/20/2023: Wallsburg Mayor Celeni Richins told KPCW the town council will hold a vote at a follow-up meeting on Aug. 24, in order to submit the tax rate to the Utah State Tax Commission by Sept. 1.
Wallsburg’s proposed budget for 2024 is about $60,000. That’s substantially higher than last year’s budget of $27,000. As Wallsburg resident Peter Nielsen pointed out to KPCW, the town doesn’t have many streams of income to rely on.
"I don't think we have anything but a business — maybe one business, the old mill," he said. "So we're not like other towns where you've got commercial taxes coming in, and sales taxes coming in."
So it falls mostly on property taxes to pay town expenses. And since Wallsburg only has about 100 homes, each household would feel a big hit if property tax revenue doubled. For a home valued at just under $579,000, the property tax bill would go up from $238 to about $678 — an increase of 186%.
About 70 people showed up for Wallsburg’s Truth in Taxation hearing Thursday evening, which would be about a quarter of the town’s total population of 300. Many residents expressed varying levels of concern and ire over the impact the tax increase would have.
"Are you guys working for us or against us?" Wallsburg resident Kent Payne asked the town council. "I feel sorry for the older people that live here, that’s been here all their life. They're on a fixed income. How the hell are they gonna pay this?"
But council member Clint Allen told residents the taxes would go towards badly needed improvements.
"We’re raising your taxes to try to fix the roads that we have out here that's falling apart," he said. "We can't afford a chip seal to preserve them, so that we don't have to replace them. It costs around 100 grand to replace one block of street."
About a third of the proposed budget increase — $13,000 — would go to improving roads. But another $14,000 was pegged for pay increases for the mayor and town council members. Mayor Celeni Richins’ wages, for instance, would increase from $250 a month to $500.
Payne told the council other towns like Woodruff, Utah do more with less in that regard.
"The mayor and council doesn't draw a dime. Not a nickel," he claimed. "It's all free grass."
But Richins told residents the pay increase was intended to incentivize more people to run for office. Richins is running for a third term this year, and for the second time, she’s running unopposed.
"When nobody, nobody put their name in, that was really hard," she said. "I will just tell you, several of us would rather not have to run again."
And that feeling was evident during the meeting. During a testy exchange with residents at the meeting, council member Justin Carlile said, "Somebody's gonna run for my spot because I'm taking my name off tomorrow."
Carlile was also up for re-election this year, and had also been running unopposed. As of Sunday, his name was crossed off the city website's list of candidates running in 2023.
His council position comes with the job of cemetery sexton, so Richins hopes he will reconsider.
"We'll have to find a council member that will take his spot. Hopefully we'll get some write-ins or something for the election," she told KPCW. "We would have to have a sexton either way. So maybe we'll have to hire a sexton. I don't know what that will do for the council member position. It's concerning."
Wallsburg resident Doyle Graham was also concerned. He told those at the meeting he wasn’t in favor of the tax increase, but “flogging” the town council wasn’t the answer.
"If these guys resign, and nobody in the audience takes their jobs, where are we at?" he asked. "What do we want to do? Do we want the county to absorb us? What do we want to do? Rather than let it go down, why don't we step up and help these guys?"
Graham's comment was met with applause. And town resident Coleen Nielsen agreed with his sentiment.
"I do think that our town board is really trying," she told KPCW. "I feel like they're looking at options. They're not after us. They're not here to get us."
And in order to look at other budget options, the town council voted unanimously to postpone a decision on the tax increase. A date has not been set for another hearing, but Mayor Richins told KPCW she hopes to hold it the first week of September.
