The Wasatch County Council voted this week to begin the process to increase property taxes. It’s called Truth in Taxation, and as the first step, the county will send notices to residents that it could seek to collect up to $750,000 more in property taxes next year. And residents can share their thoughts at a public hearing in November.
County staff said the county faces funding shortfalls in two areas. One is in the general fund, and the proposal is to collect an extra $350,000 for a variety of costs like new staff — especially for growing IT needs — and cost of living expenses for other employees.
Another request is to increase taxes that go to the Wasatch County Library by $400,000. That would be a more than 25% increase of the $1.4 million the library received in 2022.
If both increases are approved, an owner would pay about $43 more a year on a primary residence worth $1.6 million, the county’s latest average home value. For second homeowners, the charge would be closer to $80 more per year.
Councilmembers voted 5 to 1 to send notice to residents about both taxes. Luke Searle voted against it. Searle and others said they did not want to pile on top of other new taxes that the school and fire districts may levy next year. Some councilmembers who voted in favor said they still might not approve the increase when it’s time to make a final vote.
In August, the Wasatch County school board approved a $14 million revenue increase also for property taxes, and in November, county voters may approve a 0.5% sales tax estimated to generate over $5 million for fire and EMS services annually.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Wasatch County Taxpayers Association Chair Tracy Taylor said the increases have drawn the ire of some in the county.
“I'm hearing a lot of rumblings about the fire tax and the sales tax being increased,” Taylor said. “So, if you've got to notice this before the Nov. 21 election, you know, I think people are already saying, ‘Too much.’”
Several councilmembers said they agreed and asked staff if they could balance the budget without the $750,000 tax increase. County Manager Dustin Grabau said one approach could be to only increase taxes for the library.
Councilmember Steve Farrell said he’d prefer only to increase taxes where necessary. But he said he supported funding costs such as a new librarian and general upkeep to make the library self-sufficient.
“It's also very dangerous not to meet the need,” Farrell said, “because we've seen this from the fire district kicking down the road taxes for 15 years, and all of a sudden we had to have a massive increase. It's a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.'”
Grabau said the notices will go out at the end of October. Those will include dates of meetings when the public can share their thoughts with the council on the tax increase proposal and when final decisions will take place.
