Lehi levies $6 utility-rate increase

Facing a budget shortfall in a still-sluggish economy, Lehi City Council passed a $6 utility-rate increase.

The rate hike will show up soon on customer's water and sewer bills. Those departments have consistently seen deficits in the past few years, said Dave Sanderson, city financial director.

In recent years, Sanderson said Lehi avoided utility increases by transferring spare funds from other departments to cover the utility fund shortages.

But the rigmarole in fund swapping doesn't make sense to Sanderson.

"It's the only way out of a several-year cycle of consistently coming up short in these areas," Sanderson said. "This should have actually been done years ago."

The levied additional cost didn't come without misunderstanding.

Some residents mistook the utility increase for a tax and accused the mayor and city council of passing it without proper public notice. But because it isn't a tax, its adoption didn't require additional steps of notification necessary for Utah's truth-in-taxation law.

"There's a distinct difference between the two (rate increase and tax)," said Lincoln Shurtz, Utah League of Cities and Towns legislative analyst. "They technically did it right."

The city recorder legally notified of the meeting 24 hours in advance per state law. And the City Council went beyond their obligated responsibility by sending out an additional, albeit ambiguous, letter of explanation to residents for the increase.

— Jacob Hancock