From Deseret News archives:
Tax truth? Few come to hearing
Nevertheless, at 8:01 p.m. on Tuesday, Mayor Hunt Willoughby opened the public hearing and said to no one in particular, "Welcome, everybody. We are here for the purpose of a truth-in-taxation hearing to raise our taxes."
Nobody stood to protest the proposed increase, but with only three council members present, and one council member voting no, Alpine's taxes will not be changed — yet. The council will vote again on the issue on Aug. 28.
However, the public hearing part of the process is over. It was almost over midway through Willoughby's opening sentence Tuesday, when the three residents in the audience stood up and walked out the door.
Only one person was left sitting on the last row — the Lone Peak Public Safety District police chief — when it was time for public comments.
"I'll open it to the audience," Willoughby said, looking toward the back of the room. "Chief?"
City officials say they aren't sure why the meeting, which had two public notices, was so poorly attended. But Councilman Kent Hastings, who voted against bumping up the city's taxes, has a theory — and it's not that Alpine residents are so rich they don't care about paying more money.
"I think there is a misconception that they're all rich people that live in Alpine," Hastings said. "There are many people that may be on fixed incomes, or they have a large family and that (extra tax money spent) every year does make an impact. They'd rather spend it on something they need, rather than an extra service (provided by the city)."
Hastings says the city should trim other areas of its budget to pay for a road overlay program that would allow the city to repave or add chip seal to city roads every nine years instead of raise taxes.
City Manager Ted Stillman said the council is considering raising city taxes about $17 a year for a $261,000 home and $30.54 for businesses. The tax increase would result in an additional $76,090 for the city.
Hastings said he suspects that residents did not come to the city's truth-in-taxation meeting because they were down the street at Alpine School District's taxation hearing, which started one hour earlier.
"I'm not surprised (no residents came)," Hastings said. "The people that were concerned about their taxes being raised would go to the school district, because that's where most of their money will be spent. We have a much smaller chunk of the property tax bill."
Willoughby said the city wasn't aware that the school district had scheduled its taxation meeting for the same night. When the city found out, it changed its hearing from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate residents, but to Willoughby's disappointment, the city did not change the day of the hearing.
"I would have liked to have been (at Alpine School District's truth-in-taxation hearing) myself to hear what the story was," Willoughby said.
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com
