"I feel that our taxes already go for parks and recreation, so there's no need for more taxes to go for parks and recreation," said Bob Wright, an Orem resident. "We're already being taxed real heavily — recreation is a big part of the budget." However, Wright said he was in favor of any potential tax increase being put before the voters.

"Utah already has a high tax burden. Local government should be focusing on tax cuts, not tax hikes," said Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association. He said the state still struggles to pay for essential services such as public education, higher education, public transportation and public safety.

"Everyone would agree that those are must-haves," he said. "Recreation and arts are nice-to-haves, not must-haves. Since the state and local governments struggle to fund the must-haves, funding the nice-to-haves is very hard to justify."

Although the issue will be heading to the ballot, Jerman said their group is on record as opposed to the proposed tax hike.

"We're going to oppose it, obviously, but we don't know to what extent, what type of resources we'll dedicate to fighting this tax increase," he said.

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