Residents Voted Down Proposition 1, County May Raise Taxes Anyway

If residents haven't been following what our legislature is doing to small communities like Elk Ridge over the past few years, they might want to start by taking a look at SB136. It has a very similar tax increase found in HB362 from the 2015 legislative session and was ultimately voted down by proposition 1. Unfortunately SB136 seems more unfavorable to Elk Ridge residents and doesn't need voter approval.

Now, I admit that I'm not a lawyer so deciphering bills is difficult and painstakingly displeasing. City residents would be wise to do their own investigative work if so inclined. However, there is a great summary document that should help with the details. Remember that the bill passed so most all other provisions in the bill are already in affect. The first section of the summary is most relevant to the tax increase.

Although SB136 is pretty much the same as HB362, the senate bill seems to only have provisions for distributing sales tax to the cities based on where the tax was collected whereas with HB362 20% of the revenue collected was distributed based on population so Elk Ridge would at least get some of the revenue. With SB136 I'm not sure if Elk Ridge would get any additional funding for roads.

Anyone can review my previous blog on HB362 if interested in the distribution details and some of the reasons I was not in favor. It clearly showed that 80% the increased tax would be distributed away from Elk Ridge. With this new bill the amount distributed away could be 100%.

As previously mentioned, a big problem with this bill is that it grants the County Commission authority to enact the tax with absolutely no input from the residents. No vote, no hearing, nothing! They can simply put it on their agenda and vote. In fact, Commissioner Graves has already stated that this is his intention. Apparently the State Legislature didn't like how the prop 1 vote turned out so they threw us under the proverbial bus! This seems to be how they do business these days.

You should also know that Salem has already passed a resolution supporting this tax. I suggest you read this article about Salem's decision. We should all respect their decision and I certainly do.

The county recently asked if I thought the City Council, and ultimately the Elk Ridge residents, would be supportive of the tax. After thinking this through, I responded with a No. I hope the majority of Elk Ridge residents agree and I hope the county doesn't play dirty politics by holding back funding in other areas. I just had to make a choice based on the facts. BTW, here is the sample resolution drafted by the Utah League of Cities and Towns for the cities to use.

I fully expect the county to enact the tax because cities do need more road funding, and the county gets their 20%. IF the time comes (it's NOT time and there are NO plans) that our city needed to raise additional road funds, I personally would rather have my property taxes raised or a city road assessment levied so Elk Ridge would directly receive the vast majority of the revenue and avoid giving 40% to UTA for projects that have no material impact to our residents. I don't mind giving 20% to the county because there is a 20% chance we could see improvements that would have a positive impact.

As a side note, the last few legislative sessions have been rather unfavorable, even hostile, towards local municipalities as the State Legislators continue to pass unfunded mandates and restrictions that we must comply with. Maybe I will blog about this too.

HB362 - The Bad and the Ugly

A question about HB362 came up during our "Meet the Candidates" night on July 28th. At the time I hadn't scrutinized the bill as I should so recently I took a look. Remember that I'm not a lawyer and I don't pretend to understand all the legalese. However, I do believe that I have enough understanding to formulate a personal conclusion on it.

The bill seems to be completely dependent on the definition and implementation of a "Public Transit District" and whether the county has one or not. I looked up UTA and found that it was established in 1970 under the authority of the Public Transit District Act. It has two board members from Utah County and therefore I've concluded that we are now or will soon be within the UTA Transit District.

If in fact we are part of the UTA Transit District then the bill breaks down the distribution of the .25% sales tax increase as follows:

1. 40% goes directly to the UTA
2. 20% to the Utah County legislative body.
3. 20% to the cities in the county based on the population distribution.
4. 20% goes to the city where the tax is collected

The only substantial piece of the pie applicable to Elk Ridge is the 20% distribution based on our population. If the population of Elk Ridge is assumed to be 3000 and the population of Utah County is 540000 then we get .56% (3000/540000) of the 20% specified by #3 above.

If every person in the county pays an additional $1 of sales tax due to this bill then Elk Ridge would get $600 of additional tax revenue. Doesn't sound too bad until you realize that the residents of Elk Ridge had to pay $3000 of additional taxes to get the $600 back.

So what does the distribution of our $3000 tax look like? Well, the following graph shows just what it would look like.

For every dollar an Elk Ridge resident pays 80% goes somewhere else. And who do you think gets the big dollars?

Yep, UTA gets their massive payout. Of course the county commission gets their big chunk too and that will surely go to north county development to bail out Lehi, Eagle Mountain, and surrounding cities growth explosion.

I can't see much of an upside to this tax increase if you live in the south valley.

Thanks for a Successful Primary Election

Cindi and I were pretty excited last night when all precincts had reported and I wasn't eliminated. You just never know until the votes are counted.

This is my first venture into politics and it's certainly interesting. I didn't expect to be in a primary when I applied for the position but now it's on to the general election.

I want to say thanks to those who voted for me. It's pretty humbling. I now look forward to meeting many more people in Elk Ridge as the November election approaches.

You can see the results of the primary at here.