"Government is and should be the servant of the people, and it should be fully accountable to them for the actions which it supposedly takes on their behalf."

...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 November 2022? If you answered, "yes, they did", you'd be correct.  Why then, do we find ourselves in a similar position so many short months later? The short answer seems to be that our city has a problem budgeting wants vs needs. The long answer seems to be that our city has a problem budgeting wants vs needs and is hoping the citizenry won't notice or ask questions. Ultimately, nothing is going to get fixed unless the citizenry stands up, takes notice, and demands change.

Well, it's been almost 12 months, and here we are again... being told, once again, taxes must be raised as you don't have enough money. Last  November, only 9 short months ago... our city had record voter turnout for a non-presidential election year.

64.33% of Bluffdale voters cast ballots. Of that, 68.85% voted against last year's proposed tax hike.

But once again, it's not just that you don't have enough money... you specifically don't have enough money for public safety. Our city has money for every single department but not for public safety? Something is wrong with this picture.

Our city has a multi-million dollar budget... in the hundred millions, actually... yet you're going to sit up there and tell us we don't have money for public safety? WHY is public safety the scapegoat here? WHY would you ever sign off on a budget that does not put public safety as the number 1 funding priority? WHY would you ever sign off on a budget that attaches public safety to tax increases? That is not fair to them, and it is not fair to us. And honestly, it's plain wrong and indecent. 

With our most recent fiscal end, our city moved just under 2 MILLION DOLLARS in unrestricted funds into a "savings account", if you will, for capital projects... and has intentions of moving just over another 2 MILLION DOLLARS in as well for the current fiscal year we're in ...  We were told, by the city finance individual, the money is transferred in not knowing exactly which project it's going to be used for. So, we have millions that can be moved from unrestricted funds and saved for who-knows-what capital projects?  But we don't have the necessary money for public safety? And this makes sense?

Some of you are touting the new fund created for public safety as the "answer to our problems"... except, it's not. It's going to create further problems for the foreseeable future. As the city finance person state in a public meeting recently, this new fund has the ability to generate a tax increase. That should honestly scare everyone. You haven't created a fund to put public safety first, you've created a fund to induce perpetual tax increases for who knows how many years to come. This new fund creates absolutely no incentive to budget for public safety FIRST, as they should be. All budgeting can be done and then when you surprisingly realize there is no money for public safety, once again, I can imagine the ensuing conversation... "Well... oops... Good thing we created a fund that can generate a tax increase. We'll just tell everyone we don't have money for public safety again without raising taxes."

At last year's Truth-In-Taxation meeting , a couple of you sitting up there openly chastised the citizens who had the guts to stand before you last year and express their sincere feelings and displeasure in your tax increase.  Many of us were told "if it was really that much of a concern to you, you should have gotten involved in the budgeting process sooner." Wow. Fast forward to this year, many of us DID get involved sooner... and all of a sudden, we're labeled as anti-public safety and told we can't possibly understand the budget and to just leave it to all of you.

Public safety should never be held hostage to tax increases. Public safety should always be the honest to goodness FIRST priority, before anything else is budgeted. Period!

- Tammy Rasmussen