Riverton may hike property taxes by more than 200%

RIVERTON — Hard times have fallen on Riverton.

Like many other cities feeling the crunch of a faltering economy and skyrocketing fuel prices, Riverton is considering increasing property taxes by more than 200 percent to fill a gap in the city's revenue caused by evaporating new construction.

Mayor Bill Applegarth trimmed about $700,000 from the 2007-08 budget, and five city employees — including the public works director — have been laid off, but still, the city needs an additional $1 million in revenue, Applegarth says. The city currently receives about $460,000 in property-tax revenue, which is roughly 2 percent of the total tax bill property owners in Riverton pay.

"Our problem isn't expenditures, it's revenue stream," Applegarth said. "We've had, in the past, a high building rate of residents. The last fiscal year we were right around 1,000 residential building permits for the year. This year we'll be right around 100 building permits. You can see that revenue stream has dropped a great deal."

The city's projections for sales-tax revenue is $700,000 short, and the city is running on a loss of about $1.5 million in new construction fees from its 2006-07 budget. All but $800,000 of the city's rainy day fund has been tapped to supplement the 2007-08 budget, and Applegarth says he doesn't want to deplete those funds any further.

The city commissioned a survey of 454 Riverton residents in April to gauge how receptive residents would be to a potential tax increase of about $8 a month — or $96 a year, for an average home valued at about $330,000 — on the city portion of property owners' property-tax bill. About 59 percent of residents polled in the survey said they would be willing to pay the increase to keep the same level of city services, including 6 percent who said they would pay the increase if no other sources of revenue could be found.

Applegarth is quick to point out that Riverton residents pay some of the lowest property taxes in the state — even if the increase is approved the city will still be lower than most of its neighbors — and he is emphatic that he hates suggesting raising taxes, but the mayor is comforted by the statistics of the survey.

"If I had not had the support of the people to increase property taxes I never would have taken that budget to the council," Applegarth said. "We're dealing with the people's money and people need to make decisions on how they feel about services. ... If (the survey) had come back that over 50 percent of us wanted to cut services, that's what my budget would have reflected."