As you head to the polls TODAY, please remember, the City is raising your property taxes and tying it to the fire and police departments. Public safety should NEVER be pitted against the public by making them the tax increase pawn. We firmly believe there is a better way to budget without raising your property taxes. Cast your ballot BEFORE 8pm, TODAY, and
Vote AGAINST Prop 13.
Council Candidates Alan Lord & Steve Austin are THE ONLY TWO candidates who openly express they are against Prop 13 and the tax increase. Please vote for them and leave your third option blank.
Federal Sunshine Act of 1976 synopsis
by Malah Armstrong | Aug 2, 2023 | Newsletters, The Utah Taxpayer
In July, the Utah Taxpayers Association published a list of the 78 entities proposing to raise taxes in 2023. In reviewing the reasons behind some of these proposals, common themes included hiring new law enforcement and public safety personnel, making city employee pay more competitive, and “inflation”. Over the last several years, almost everything has been blamed on inflation. Housing prices, flight prices, food prices, postage stamp prices and yes, tax increases. But to what extent is inflation a valid argument for cities to raise taxes?
While it is true that cities’ costs have increased because of inflation, so too have their revenues. Sales tax is a percentage of the cost of purchased goods and services. A higher cost of these goods and services means a higher amount of sales tax is being paid. For example, a $10 burger in Salt Lake City is subject to a 7.75% sales tax of $0.775. If inflation causes that burger to increase in price to $12, the sales tax collected increases to $0.93. Applied to almost every item purchased, this increase in sales tax translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars of increased revenues for cities.
Between our 2022 and 2023 Cost of City Government reports, average city collections increased by more than $2MM, from $26,358,207 to $28,382,837, and median collections increased by more than $4MM, from $40,797,438 to $45,152,808. There were several reasons for these increases, including growth and impact fees, but many cities saw substantial increases in sales tax revenues. If cities want to argue that inflation has caused their expenses to increase, they must also concede that inflation has caused their revenues to increase.
There is also evidence to suggest city costs have not increased by much more than the inflation they have captured. The Municipal Cost Index, developed and quantified by American City and County since 1978, shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services. The Consumer Price Index – a measure of inflation more broadly – often deviates more than the MCI and demonstrates that the cost of providing government services often does not increase as much as headline inflation would indicate. As seen in the chart below, this has been the case in 2023 once again with the year over year change in MCI significantly below the change in the CPI.
The Utah Taxpayers Association encourages cities to go through the Truth in Taxation process every 5-7 years to respond to inflation, or to capture the modest difference between the MCI and the CPI. However, the idea that taxes should be raised every year to respond to inflation is born out of poor budgeting practices and lazy excuses. The Truth in Taxation process is based on the simple truth that taxes rise only when entities want to spend more money. While there are legitimate reasons for an entity to increase their budget, the claim that it is a necessary response to inflation is – at best – disingenuous.
https://utahtaxpayers.org/inflation-isnt-raising-your-taxes-cities-are/
Bluffdale doesn't have a money IN problem - it has a money OUT problem.
In the LAST TWO YEARS, 550K went OUT in wage & benefit INCREASES for just 10 employees & 700K went OUT in Parks & Rec increases.
Many have used the "argument" lately that our city "needs" to pay the top administration wages that are comparable to the surrounding cities.
A huge problem with this is that Bluffdale is NOT comparable to our surrounding cities.
Riverton has TWICE our population, while Herriman has almost THREE TIMES our population.
Herriman is ranked the 13th largest city in Utah.
Riverton is ranked the 22nd largest city in Utah.
Bluffdale is ranked the 46th largest city in Utah.
WHY are we trying to justify what's being spent on top administration wages based on what our neighbor cities are spending?
The following chart compares our city to our surrounding cities as well as to cities that are actually of comparable size, population, growth rate, and projected growth rate. All data was found on WorldPopulationReveiw.com and Transparent.Utah.gov. All numbers are for 2023.
Once again, we find ourselves in a similar position as that of only 10 short months ago. Did not almost 69% of Bluffdale residents, in a record voter turnout for a non-Presidential election year, say "NO" to an almost 31% Bluffdale property tax increase in 2022? If you answered, "yes, they did", you'd be correct.
As of Fiscal Year 2024 (runs July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024), Bluffdale has created a new Fire & Police Protection Fund as a "separate taxing entity". Herriman & Riverton use a different process, but the results are similar... higher taxes (see figures on chart). Bluffdale's stated long-term goal is to have this fund funded through property taxes.
Do you see a way to accomplish this without exorbitant annual property tax increases? As stated in the City's own wording at multiple council meetings and on the November 2023 ballot,
the 2023-24' increase is only the "initial" increase.
We should pay attention to what this has done to Herriman & Riverton.
...according to Open Payrolls, Bluffdale is the 79th highest
...paying city for administrative salaries.
Right behind Houston, Texas.
HOW is Bluffdale behind Houston, Texas?
Better still, how is Bluffdale even on this list?
Is this where our city is headed?
**The following information was retrieved from Herriman's blog and a KSL article.
Both articles cite their origins. Red color was inserted for emphasis.
Yellow highlights within parenthesis was added.**
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