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Davis Journal

Bountiful Council raises property taxes by $950K

Sep 02, 2021 10:32AM ● By Tom Haraldsen

BOUNTIFUL—Following a three-plus hour Truth in Taxation hearing on Aug. 10, Bountiful City Council members voted to approve a property tax rate increase and subsequent new budget for Fiscal Year 2021-22. The new budget results in a $950,000 increase in property taxes, which the city will allocate to its General Fund for existing services and to maintain the city’s cash reserve funds.

Three new full-time employees are budgeted for this fiscal year – two in the parks department and one in information technology. The budget also adds 3.75 percent for inflationary protection over the next year. The tax increase means a property tax increase of $5.17 per month or $62 a year for a home with an assessed value of $434,000, the average for a home in Bountiful.

It wasn’t an issue that everyone on the council agreed with. Council member Kendalyn Harris voted against Ordinance 2021-09, which adopted the budget that contained a property tax amount of $3,551,839 and set the real property tax rate at 0.000967. That compares to the fiscal year 2020-21 rate of 0.000789. That is a 37 percent increase from the current tax amount, something city leaders said was necessary to maintain the city’s “pay as you go” fiscal policies. 

Harris had stated in previous council discussions on possible budget scenarios that she preferred a more gradual increase in the tax rate, with subsequent increases in future years.

“I do believe that we need three more employees,” she said. “I would like to propose 15 percent rather than 37 percent where we can still cover the salaries for those three employees. I think it’s a little more helpful to look at (the budget) every year, when we’re closer and can better predict the trajectory.”

Others disagreed. Council member Millie Segura Bahr countered, saying “we’ve been talking about this for months. We go through this budget line by line. I wish all of our budget meetings were as well attended as this one tonight. The responsible thing for us to do is to put our city in a good position moving forward rather than kicking the can down the road.” She voted in favor of the new budget, joining council members Richard Higginson, Chris Simonsen and Kate Bradshaw.

“Some have asked why taxes haven’t been raised incrementally,” Higginson said. “It’s painful, and the council doesn’t want to raise taxes. We don’t like paying taxes either, and we feel the pain every time the government does something like that. Only one time in the past 20 years have we raised taxes and it was specifically for the purpose that some of you (the public) have mentioned tonight – to hire more law enforcement. The fact that the city has a cash reserve fund and can pay cash and not have to bond for them – that saves us money. We’re all going to pay less over time if we have and maintain those reserves.”

“Everyone sitting on this council right now knows this is a very difficult thing,” Simonsen said. “We all go through the budget booklet, each page, and look at the proposed expenditures and say, ‘Is this necessary?’ ‘Can we cut this, can we cut that?’ This is hard. But you elected us as a council to look after the wellbeing of this city. I feel it’s our responsibility to make the hard decision and do what is right for the wellbeing of our city.”

Bradshaw agreed, saying she has had a lot of public engagement with residents on the budget and city’s needs. “In the end, I have to apply my best judgement. In the end, it comes down to two principles – pay as you go and reserves.”

Preceding the vote on the budget there was about an hour of public comment (see separate story) where residents asked a lot of questions that were fielded and responded to by city staff. 

The property tax rate and budget were adopted by a 4-1 vote.