No tax hike in new West Valley budget

WEST VALLEY CITY — Utah's second-largest city has adopted its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and once again it has done so without increasing property taxes.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the approximately $124 million budget, to go into effect July 1. Council members and residents alike praised budget planners for coming up with a plan that maximizes city services during lean economic times without more heavily taxing the 125,000 people who live in the city. "I am here to congratulate and thank you guys for all the hard work you do to keep our property taxes low in this city," said Charles Sipes, a West Valley resident who serves on the Salt Lake Board of Realtors' governmental affairs committee.

The budget amount represents a 46 percent increase from last year, though finance director Jim Welch said that is misleading because it factors in a bond repayment from an approximately 5-year-old bank fund that has matured this year and will be used to pay down debt from an E Center refunding.

Without that $36 million, the budget represents a more modest increase of 3.9 percent.

The bulk of the budget goes toward public safety, with 32.6 percent allocated to the city's police department and 14.2 percent going to the fire department. The rest of the budget covers such items as administrative costs, debt service, parks and recreation, public works and community and economic development.

The city gains most of its income — 32 percent — from sales taxes. Welch said that money is slightly up this year as the economy continues to improve. About 26 percent of the budget is paid for by property taxes.

In the city's history, property taxes have gone up only three times, city manager Wayne Pyle said. He said each of those increases was instituted to cover a specific expense rather than to feed the general fund. The most recent increase was in 1997 to pay for the city's fitness center.

Pyle said the budget this year is a pleasant surprise, as early last year he forecast a "pretty dire" situation in which property tax increases might have been necessary. "In the past year we actually had a better year," he said. "We've had some good development in the last year."

He said budget planners continually struggle to "strike that balance" between creating a legally required balanced budget without increasing taxes.

Councilwoman Margaret Peterson said she thinks this year was "the most difficult budget process I've seen in 15 years at this city."

City budgets statewide are required to be completed and adopted by late June, but Welch said West Valley has a history of finalizing its budget early.

---

E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com