Assistant Wasatch County Manager Heber Lefgren will present the proposed base budget to the county council Wednesday, along with a five-year financial forecast and additional spending requests from each department.
County Manager Dustin Grabau said if the county maintains its current level of spending, next year’s budget will be essentially flat.
“If we're going to keep everything at status quo and sort of like incremental increases on things we know are going up, like our contract expenses that are going up and payroll expenses that are going up, our health insurance things like that, what does the budget look like,” Grabau said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” Tuesday. “So this gives the council a good sense of if we just keep doing what we've been doing, this is where we're at, and what we're seeing right now is that we have a very small surplus.”
Grabau doesn’t anticipate a need for a property tax increase especially as more of the Deer Valley East Village development begins generating property tax revenue.
“We're reaching an inflection where the second hotel came online earlier this year,” he said. “Over the next five years, we're going to see the Four Seasons and the Waldorf Astoria come online, as well as the skier services building. These are going to form a really strong core of economic activity up in that area, with a really high potential to impact the county's budget and really fund essential services without having to go back to taxpayers for additional funds.”
The council discussed its main budget priorities earlier in the summer. County staff will now present some of the specific additions they’d like to see in the budget, including as many as eight new full-time positions.
“There won't be funding for that number of position changes,” he said. “But those are the types of things that'll be on the table. We've talked about an affordable housing director. There is a need for an investigator in the attorney's office. The sheriff's office has some payroll requests.”
The council will also address the affordability crisis after a recent report showing that 99% of renters in Wasatch County can’t afford to buy a home there.
Grabau said the county will discuss possible creative solutions for the housing issue and how to build support among private-sector partners in the community.
Click here for the agenda and meeting link.
