Davis County officials announced on Wednesday that a proposed property tax increase of 30% would be adjusted to just under 15%. On an average home that would be approximately $4 a month. The original amount with the 30% increase was just over $8 per month. The decision came during a monthly leadership meeting Nov. 5 made up of all elected officials and department directors.

“We knew we needed to go over the public open house because all of these leaders in Davis County are invited to be there to answer people’s questions,” said Commission Chair Lorene Kamalu. “Everybody can learn a lot more about the county because most people don’t know much about county government at all.”

Back in 2016, the last time there was a tax increase for the general fund, the county held public open houses for people to come and learn a lot more about the county and about property tax and how it works and the reason that it is necessary to increase the revenue to run the county government, she said. “Some people assume you’re growing government but that is not the case with Davis County.”

Arrangements for the open house was on the agenda, said Kamalu. “That agenda item turned into a very robust discussion about the Controller’s chart. He’s excellent, he had already prepared the tentative budget which has the up to 30% needed on just the county’s portion of the property tax. We had already said no to every department request that was not required by law. We’d already done that.”

A discussion started regarding what it would look like if everyone worked together and all of the leadership tried hard to do that middle level, which is just under a 15% tax increase, she said. “So we talked and talked. The reality is Davis County is already admired for being one of the very lowest costs of county government in the state.”

Two thirds of the general fund is criminal justice and public safety, said Kamalu. “There’s a lot in there, big departments, big numbers and crucial work. No one wants to see the level of service go down.”

Kamalu said they’re trying hard to work with all of the leadership to see if they can get it down to below the 15% on just the county portion and also create a balanced budget. “We’ve got to have a balanced budget.”

Every one of the elected officials and directors of departments have to do hard, hard things, she said. “That’s what we’ll keep doing.”

“I believe that it’s very important that we as a commission work together on this,” said Commissioner Bob Stevenson. “If we can get all three commissioners to go to the 14% level then that’s great. The difference between the two as far as the gap we have is $12 million. The little under 10% brings us a little over $4 million. A little less than 15% brings us to $6 million. So we’re closing the gap but we do have our rainy day fund which is right now sitting at about $30 million, which is plenty high.”

Stevenson said there’s no reason as the county gets its revenues and expenses figured out for 2026 that they can’t utilize some of those dollars to basically take some of the burden off of the taxpayer but also allow the county some time to get the revenue of the expenses figured out for what the future’s going to be. “You’ve heard me say that I hate property taxes. It’s one of the most unfair taxes that exist out there. It’s pretty hard to have the American dream and to continue to have all the entities raise taxes. Even if they’re not large amounts they all add up. We need to figure out how we can continue to run government efficiently at the same time; we have to be able to make sure we’re taking care of families.”

A lot of people assume that when they get their tax bill that the total figure is what this percentage is on, he said. “No, it’s only on the county line items. I think people are thinking this is going to cost them $500-$1,000 more annually. It’s not.”

This is a minimal type of charge, said Stevenson. “But we’re very respectful of the fact that there are a lot of people in this county who between the size of their families, between the different type of bills that they may be dealing with sometimes $4 or $5 or $6 a month – that’s a lot to overcome.”

The Commission will not take a vote on the increase until after the Dec. 2 Truth in Taxation meeting.