Utah County approves ‘absolutely necessary’ tax increase for 2025 budget

PROVO — The Utah County Commission approved its budget for 2025 Wednesday, which includes a significant property tax increase that the commissioners said was “absolutely necessary.”

The county approved an increase of 47.99% for its portion of the property tax, plus a 10% increase on the assessing and collecting portion of the tax.

This means the county property tax for an average home worth $532,000 would increase from $190.78 to $282.33, or about $91.55 a year. For the county assessing and collecting portion, the tax would increase from an average of $31.89 to $35.35, or about $3.46 per year.

This would equate to about $8 a month from each household to “address noted services and deficits,” county administrator Ezra Nair said in August at a truth-in-taxation hearing. He acknowledged that the increase will have a significant impact on residents.

The tax increase was met with staunch criticism at that August meeting from residents already hurting from inflation and the increased cost of living.

Nair said the county has taken steps to reduce its property tax burden. It cut more than $2 million from the county health department, letting go of more than 100 employees and seeking revenue from other sources — such as incentivizing businesses to come to the county in order to increase sales tax revenue and getting federal aid for certain projects.

The increase would generate revenue of about $25 million for the county general fund and $1 million for the assessing and collecting fund for the 2025 tax year.

According to the tax increase resolution, the funds will be used for law enforcement, public safety needs, roads, infrastructure, “necessary capital improvements and public services to address the needs of growth throughout the county.”

The county last increased its share of the property tax in 2019 and then partially reduced it in 2021. The property tax increase would amount to a 16% increase of the county’s total general fund budget, which consists of property tax, sales tax, fees, and interest.

Since the original tentative budget was proposed, changes have been made to make it more balanced so that county leaders don’t need to take any money from the county’s “rainy day fund,” budget manager Gina Tanner said in Wednesday’s commission meeting.

Commissioner Skyler Beltran chose to abstain from voting on the budget, saying he didn’t have enough time to fully understand the budget since he only became a commissioner in September. Beltran replaced Tom Sakievich when he resigned over health issues. He will also continue as commissioner in January since he won the general election in November.

With public safety concerns needing to be addressed in the county attorney’s and sheriff’s offices, and losing federal funding the county has had for 20 years for the Children’s Justice Center, the tax increase was “necessary,” he said.

“I may not personally agree with the full amount as we hammered out, but I would like to make sure I go on the record that a tax increase was absolutely necessary this year,” Beltran said.

Beltran said he is optimistic about improving the budget process in the future, and there are staffing plan changes he has in mind and “baseline adjustments” he would like to see implemented next year.

Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner commended Beltran for his approach to the budget and how hard he worked on it even with such little time.

“We, as a county, have been working tirelessly. I agree; I would not vote for this budget if it wasn’t absolutely necessary,” she said.

Powers Gardner said Utah County is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. However, to keep it that way, she says the criminal justice program needs to be funded for prosecution and public defenders.

“Public safety is paramount to our community; prosecuting crime is necessary. The service that we do — over 80% of this tax increase goes directly to public safety, and that’s an area we can’t compromise,” she said.

The tax increase is also due to inflation, Powers Gardner said, which “hits every one of our pocketbooks.”

“I know that there isn’t a single department here who got everything they asked for, and I am sorry. But we did the best we could,” she said.

“There was a Herculean effort across the board by every department. Everybody had to give more than they wanted to, but we were able to balance the budget and come up with a fiscally balanced budget,” she added.