City Council - public_hearing

in the future so that they can extend the freeway.

Hello? Can we test it?

If someone's microphone's not working, it's not us. We've tested everything. Everything works.

It's working?

All of our stuff is working. Everything's working.

Yes.

We just need you to be there. Okay. When people look at us, they're like, why aren't they talking? It's them. They're the problem. Because that's what happened last year, remember? Like, somebody tried to join in their talking. We're like, tell us. I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. We tested everything.

Okay, is this?

I don't know what's going on there.

Oh, it's on the other side, I think.

Is it not on the other side?

Someone did something.

It's right there. It's that one.

But yeah, on that property, that is the state.

And I'll let him know that there's stipulations. But maybe if he starts with, can I just lease it, and I'll put a fence up and close it after hours or something.

And then I bet you they can do it. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's great.

Is it? Why Cambridge? Is that where your guys' office is? We have a client forum there. I was like, I can either have a jet lag at home or be on a test before I eat. Good talk.

Hello, how are you?

That was the first night out on the show. I don't think anyone should.

Actually, I couldn't get it to work on my iPad, but I got it to work on my place.

So I did it on my phone. I think I've only missed...

I've probably missed three city councils. No, I can see Henry.

He's interesting, because...

Thank you.

Thank you.

We did go. Going, coming back was going to Yellowstone. And the higher end of Montana. We haven't done any of that.

Dustin, who ran against Stoddard last night?

because it was cooler.

I went to Rome. The other room. The other room.

It was fun to see. It was fun. I couldn't stand it.

I spent more time in the shop than I did in the room because there was a thought that maybe Wendy would.

She just wrote it. Yeah.

It's 6 p.m. Excuse me, it's 6 p.m.

I was surprised about Mark.

There's quite a few states that have it for that reason.

New York City, obviously, doesn't get Cuomo. He just opened up.

That was cool. Go for it. I mean, it's impossible. No. We were good. There's a reason. Okay.

There's plenty.

Okay, welcome everyone to our special meeting, Midvale City Council, August 11th, 2026. This will be our truth in taxation meeting that we have publicly noticed. There is a virtual participation link. I'm not sure if there's anyone participating virtually at this point. But if there is, we will give them an opportunity to speak if they so choose. Just to get started here, a little bit different than our normal meetings, but we will start as we typically do with the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay. Rory, will you call the roll to see who's here?

Yes. Councilmember Robinson? Here. Michelash? Here. Brown?

Here.

Billings? Here. And Glover? Here.

Okay, that is all five of us. We've achieved a quorum and can continue. We have one public hearing tonight and that is to consider setting the public safety property tax on all real estate personal property in Midvale City for calendar year 2026. Here to discuss that is Mariah Hill. Welcome, Mariah.

Thank you. We are only allowed to discuss very certain things and two of those things we're allowed to discuss tonight are the property tax increase and the approved budget. So I am just going to present them both together so that we have a holistic picture and we can go from there. Just a review of our budget timeline and how we got here. We started with budget and strategy workshop in April. You guys adopted a tentative budget in early May. We held a public hearing on the tentative budget. And then in the middle of June, you adopted the interim budget, which is what the city is currently operating off of, a certified tax rate for the general operations of the city. And then you adopted a proposed public safety property tax increase, which put us into the truth in taxation process. which culminates tonight in our truth and taxation public hearing and then also the adoption of our final budget. Just a few notes for the approved budget is that I have in the past called this the final budget but because we amend the budget throughout the year that I think was leading to some confusion so I'm calling this iteration the approved budget. So just in case you were wondering about that, though it is yet to be approved by you, hopefully it will be tonight. And then there have been no changes in the budget that's being proposed tonight from the interim budget that you adopted in June. And just a reminder that you had no property tax increase in the general fund. property tax. Quick overview. In the general fund, our revenues are just over $24 million. This is a decrease of 18.3% from fiscal year 2026, though that is not just all a decrease. We had some moving around and some accounting that happened with the public safety fund, which I'll reference later, but we have $18.4 million in taxes. 871,000 in licenses and permits, 1.4 in intergovernmental revenue, 2.3 in charges for services, 680,000 in fines and forfeitors, just under 200,000 in miscellaneous revenue, and a use of fund balance of 74,000. For our tax revenue, the breakdown is that our sales tax is $11.6 million. That's an increase of $375,000 from fiscal year 2026 projections, or budget, but it is matching what were our fiscal year 2025 actuals. We have $3.5 million in property taxes. There is $104,000 in increase in that from last year, though it did not come from a property tax increase. That came from new growth in the RDA Main Street kind of coming online. We have $2.4 million in franchise and telecom tax, though that's about a $300,000 decrease from fiscal year 2026, and then $831,000 in other taxes. I always love to do our sales tax 101, which is that when you pay sales tax in Midvale specifically, that pie is the whole of what you're paying, 7.45%. The local use and sales tax is 1%. So if you spend $1, one penny goes to the local use and sales tax. Of that penny, half of it goes into a statewide pool that gets distributed based on the percentage of population of the entire state that we make up. The other half of that penny does come directly to Midvale. An overview of the expenditure changes in the general fund, a lot is similar to last year, though we did have personnel increases of approximately $350,000. This was a result of allocation changes. We went through and made sure everyone is getting paid for out of where they're doing their work. We had a 3.5% COLA, 1% merit. targeted market and midpoint adjustments. We had some benefit increases, and then we removed a part-time finance clerk from the budget and reclassified policy and project manager as an economic development manager. Something else of note in the budget is that we, throughout it, is we split IT operations and equipment. That used to be one interferon charge, but that's a new thing that happened this year and looks a little different if you look line by line. that those are now split up from each other. And because of that, we paused equipment charges that resulted in about a $72,000 net decrease in the general fund. Department-wide, we also had an additional $31,000 of cuts, just departments being lean wherever they could and cutting what they could. For miscellaneous increases in the general fund, we have just about $200,000 of one-time money. We are contributing to a radio tower for use with the radios the city uses. We invested in the community renewable energy program. We have a one-time grant to the Boys and Girls Club, the City Float. We have some, I think these, oh no, that is one-time. Okay, legal professional services. We have an unemployment claim we needed to pay and some education reimbursements in the budget. And then ongoing miscellaneous increases in the general fund are communication software, some sign replacement, and kind of increased costs related to the planning commission of $26,000 in total for all of those. Here's a just look at the... departmental level of the budget, which is the level at which you guys adopt the budget. So overall administration went up one and a half percent, administrative services down 2.1, public work stayed just about the same, and community development decreased 10% overall. And those are all the expenditure departments in the general fund. As we move and talk about the property tax increase, just a little reminder about truth in taxation and property taxes in Utah is that property tax rates in Utah are revenue driven, not rate driven. Increases in property values do not automatically result in higher taxes. So if property rates increase, then The tax rate will actually effectively go down unless the council chooses to increase that. And if property values decrease, then the tax rate will increase. But the revenue that the city gets is held even unless we move into the truth in taxation process. Also note that primary residential properties do receive a 45% exemption on their taxable value. So just to talk about the truth in taxation process, we had some changes this year that came through the legislature. I believe, and I will be providing proof to the state tax commission and the county auditor that we have met all of the requirements. This includes that we adopted a tentative budget in May. We issued required tax increase statements and made those statements, however repetitive they were, in our public meetings and had the proper tax impact schedules available. And then we also scheduled a public hearing for the budget in May. In June, we received our tax data, so we were able to put together the very specific information around our tax increase. We held the public hearing for the budget. You guys adopted the general operations not increased tax rate, the certified tax rate. And then you voted to move into truth and taxation for the proposed public safety property tax and adopted an interim revenue restricted budget. In July and August, we completed all required valuation and notices and public hearings and notices of those public hearings. And then in August we are holding our truth and taxation hearing. We're adopting our final budget and then I will submit all compliance documentations to the auditor. Well actually it's the budget to the auditor, everything else to the tax commission. And then something that was also required is that we had a property tax impact statement anytime we had anything budget related on any of our agendas. I believe we have done all that. So we are proposing to raise our property tax just our public safety property tax, which goes just into our public safety special revenue fund. This was created in fiscal year 2026 to house all of our public safety related revenues and expenses. The revenues in this fund comprise of our public safety property tax. This is the only change from the interim budget, which is that had to be broken out in a separate line item, a restricted budget line item. all of the public safety property taxes just in one line item in this budget. There's no changes to the amounts. They just were split out and now they're together. We have state homeless mitigation funding. This in previous years has gone into the general fund and we used it to pay for public safety. Now it's just going straight into where the money will be spent from. We have some interest revenue, motor vehicle in lieu of taxes that are related to the property tax rate. But again, those are new revenue in fiscal year 27 to this fund and then a very large transfer from the general funds to still help fund this. Our expenditures are only our animal control contract with Salt Lake County, which had a 4.7% increase. Our emergency manager contract with Unified Fire Authority. which is 6.8% increase, and then our Unified Police Department, which had 2.98% budgeted increase. So here's how that all lays out. You can see that the property taxes account for $1 million out of $15 million of this budget. And then for this 2026 tax year information, this is the information that all of the numbers we sent out are based out as we had a total taxable value of about $3.8 billion. We had new eligible growth in the city of 33 million. The average Midvale residential value was $503,000. That was a 2.2%. 4% increase from last year. And then the average taxable residential value is just that 55% of that is $276,000. So this is the proposed public safety property tax increase for the 2026 calendar year is 8.04%. that will bring in $78,814 of new revenue into the Public Safety Special Revenue Fund. The certified tax rate for that would have been .000246. The proposed rate is .000266. And on that average residential property, that estimated increase is $5.54 per year on the residential properties and for a commercial property, $10.06. Some of this is required that we say this, and the purpose is a part of that's required to be said in this meeting, and that's to maintain our current level of public safety services that we pay for out of our special revenue fund. We aren't adding any additional officers. This just comes through with operational increases in those public safety services, and so the purpose is really to just be able to maintain our current level of services. I'm just putting this in here for good measure. This is the county notice of proposed tax increases, but this is countywide. Not all of these apply to Midvale residents, but if they wanted to see this, they could find all of the taxing entities that have proposed increases that would impact. And one of the requirements is that none of the public hearings for affected people overlap. So any other taxing entity that is going through Truth in Taxation for Midvale residents, they can still make it to that public hearing, those public hearings as well. Just to finish out the budget, here is the summary of the enterprise funds. All of these really didn't have too much changes from previous years, but I'll go through some quick notes. All enterprise funds had those same citywide personnel changes that I noted with the new allocations, COLA, Merit, Market, Midpoint. Benefit increases, and then they all had some minimal operation cost updates. And then throughout the enterprise funds, we were able to maintain all of those increases with no rate increases. So there was no changes to water sewer utility rates this year. And then the water fund had an 11.5% increase from Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District. That was about $205,000. And then we have funds to update the water master plan for 120. In the sewer fund, we had a 3.5% increase from South Valley Water Reclamation Facility, who's our treatment facility. And then we did have the addition of operation and maintenance costs for the vac station. which is a piece of infrastructure we've taken over from a developer. And then in the stormwater fund, we did have the addition of a camera truck. This is per the master plan that was adopted recently, as well as the addition of ongoing capital outlay of $100,000. And then in the street lighting fund, we added additional funds for equipment maintenance and supplies in anticipation of a master plan that's in the works currently. For other funds that the city has, we have a debt service fund that really we just use to pay our bond payments. The total budget for that is $1.7 million. The capital projects fund is just under $1.5 million. We have sidewalk replacement and pavement management in there as well as new restrooms for the Midvale City Park. and ongoing facility maintenance. We have a fleet fund that's just over $2 million. This is where all the different departments pay into so that we can replace our vehicles and keep those up to date and pay for their maintenance and operation. And then similarly, we have an internal service fund for information technology with same thing we pay for all of our computer operation and replacement out of there for just under $400,000. Any questions?

Sorry. Any questions for Mariah? Okay, not seeing any, I will thank you and not say anything else so we don't violate any, what we're allowed to say or not say. But thank you for all your hard work on the budget. This is a public hearing, so if there is a motion to open this to public comment, now would be a good time.

Mayor, I motion we open public comment. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of opening public comment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we are in public comment. If there's anyone from the public who would like to comment at this time, you'll be given three minutes and we just ask that you state your name for the record.

Hello. My name is Amy Cotter. I have been a resident of Midvale City for 21 years. I bought my house just off of 397 West Altaview Drive. I've been there. I think I closed on the house August of 2005 and finished raising my kids there. I am not so much concerned with the increase to public safety. I'm very grateful to the Unified Police Department. They've saved my life. I owe a great debt. So I don't have a problem paying for that fire, things of that nature. However, in crunching some numbers year over year on how the property taxes have increased from 2020 to 2026, with the exception of the reprieve we received in 2023, they have consistently gone up. The hardest hitter was 2025. my tax bill increased by $777.92 just over the prior year. So the six year total is my property taxes have increased by $1,519.94. That's the running six year. It wouldn't be so bad if our utilities were not also going up every year. This water surcharge is painful if you want to keep any lawn at all. Mine's pretty much dead. But I just think that we could do better a little bit, maybe. You guys are going to tax me out of my home. If we keep going at the same rate we're going is my concern. I've got some other concerns, but it has nothing to do with taxes, so I'll leave that alone. But I'm just hoping that we can somehow, someway get a reprieve or a respite period before eating all these taxes. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Amy. We appreciate your comment.

Oh, I do have one question. Yep. On our tax bill, it is the water district. So the Jordan Valley, I believe, and then the other water conservatory. Hold on. What is it called? You guys probably know what I'm talking about. The Jordan Valley Water Conservatory, I guess, in the central Utah. Why are we getting billed? on our property taxes, and we pay water. Can you help me understand what those charges are on the property tax side?

Yeah, I don't know who wants to answer that one, but every entity that you see on your tax bill is a different taxing entity. So you'll see the school district, you'll see the mosquito abatement district. So we don't control any of that here. We just control the specific line item that says Midvale City and then also the Midvale City public safety tax. So that's the only thing tonight that if we... adopt the budget that Mariah just presented, it'll be, the percentage will be just for the Midvale portion. So the two lines that you see that say Midvale City.

So it kind of feels like we're getting double dinged though, aren't we? In a sense, because isn't that who you pay your water or your bill to, we pay you, you pay them, and then they're going to charge us again. So I guess I just want an understanding of what we're being taxed or What the funds are for, I guess, is just my curiosity. Kind of feels like they're getting, they're double dipping.

So they are receiving two different revenue sources, Jordan Valley. We are, we have representation on that board, not any of us, but there's like a Midvale representative that's appointed by the governor onto that. And then, so they are part of the people who are voting for it. So when we pay them, we have a specific contract that we're paying them for for the water we are using. And my understanding is the issue with the property tax is that sort of is intended to sort of cover more of like... the general capital expenses that are for everyone who is in an area that receives Jordan Valley water. So it is two different revenue sources, but it's sort of two different purposes for that money.

I think the easy answer to that is you pay a monthly water bill based on your usage. But then there's a taxing entity that will need to, from time to time, raise taxes in order to improve their own infrastructure. So the systems in which the water and the sewer is, you know.

Understood. But that's also how you come up with your rates, right? And your thing is. So I do feel like they just get to taxes because they want to. Thank you for trying to explain it to me.

And it's a good question. Yeah, great question. Thank you, Amy. And I just want to say what's hard is I think I've tried to find it. I'm struggling. I think a lot of the entities in 2025 raised. So the 700 increase was very likely not mostly Midvale City, but there's the county, the library, UFA. Mosquito, I think they had some huge increase, but it went from like $2 to $4 or something like that. It was $1 a year. But it looks like a huge percentage.

The percentage is so crazy just because they don't charge hardly anything to start with.

But the bill comes from Midvale City, it looks like, right? So I hear you, and it looks like a $700 increase from Midvale. We unfortunately, or not, we get a very little piece of that. And we can only control that one line item.

The other thing is that most of the taxes are going to the school district, if you look on there. And you can say, well, I don't have kids and I'm not sending them to school, but we all benefit from education. And it's hard to be able to have to pay that much, but... that's where a majority of all of our taxes are going. And in Midvale, we've tried really, really hard to keep the taxes down. I mean, the reality is we could probably get by without this tax increase this year. But the last time we had a major tax increase, everybody said we'd rather pay a couple dollars a year more each year than have to pay a whole bunch at one time. So we could hold it off probably for three or four years, and then all of a sudden you'd get a giant, Bill so that's.

Amy, we need to have you at the microphone if you're going to talk so we're just recording it so we just need to have you come up.

Anyhow, we're trying really hard to keep them as low as we possibly can. And I don't like paying property taxes any more than anybody. And I've mentioned this before in the past. I think property tax is the least impressive tax that I can see. We own stuff that we have to keep paying for it. I'd rather pay more sales tax, but it's the way the system is designed. But we're trying really hard to keep it low.

And to that end, originally the first budget we saw was about $6 a month that we were proposed. And to get it down to 42 cents a month, it was no small feat. So is there anyone else from the public who would like to comment? Not to put the spotlight on you, but you're the only person from the public remaining. And just state your name for the record.

My name is Julie Clef. I live on Adams Street. And I figured if I'm going to drive all the way down here, I might as well say something. My frustration with this is, and it's my own fault, but there's not a lot of people here. I found out about this meeting on Facebook about 45 minutes ago. And so I just wish there was better. public engagement. Again, I think you approved things in May. I was at state PTA convention doing my job. And then I think you passed a budget in June. I was in Pittsburgh at national PTA convention the same week. So I missed the things. And obviously, I'm busy. But a lot of people are busy. And I just wish I would have known. But I do appreciate public safety increases. what you do for our city. It's been a hard week. So thank you.

Thank you, Julie. I appreciate that. Is there anyone else from the public who would like to comment at this time? Is there anyone participating virtually who would like to comment? OK. Seeing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing?

Mayor, I motion we close the public hearing. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, public comment is ended. There is an action associated with this public hearing and it is on the board for council.

Before we make a motion, I just want to say that this is something that we've actually been discussing for over a year now at almost every meeting. And to that point, though, if you ever want to reach out to any of us, please know that I feel like every one of these council members would be more than happy to sit and talk with you, as would city staff. because to Council Member Glover's point, we really try our best to keep them as low as possible, and we welcome the communication on these, because we know that this is a big deal, and this can be life-changing. So please know that even if you do miss meetings, feel free to pick up the phone or text or Facebook message us. We're more than happy to sit and discuss these things.

Thank you, Council Member Robinson.

Mayor, I move that we adopt Resolution 2026-R-42, setting the public safety property tax rate at 0.000266 on all real and personal property in Midvale City for calendar year 2026. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. I'm going to look around very quickly to make sure that everyone says that's a-okay. Okay. Rory, will you call the yeas and nays?

Yes. Council Member Glover? Aye. Robertson? Aye. Brown? Yes. Nicolash? Yes. And Billings? Yes.

Okay, that passes unanimously. We have one action item tonight, very much related. Consider resolution number 2026, R43, adopting the operating and capital budgets for Midvale City, State of Utah, for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. Mariah, do you have anything to add for that? Okay, the motion is up on the board for council to consider unless there's any discussion.

I just really quickly wanted to thank Maria for all the hard work that you've put into this for, I mean, since January, really. I mean, it's a year-long project, but, you know, really since January. So thank you so much for being clear and concise and consistent all the time. Thanks so much for all that work.

I would agree, and I'd like to say I like what Council Member Glover said. We took this direction on the smaller so it's not big. We want to make sure our staff can have an okay life working with Midvale and stay. You've seen the news in the next couple of weeks. There are very upset cities right now with raising taxes. I think Eagle Mountain's going through a citizen referendum because they're 200 plus percent or something like that with their raise. We want to avoid that, and I think between us avoiding that and Mariah doing the job that she's doing, and the rest of the staff keeping everything as low as possible, I think, you know, we're trying to do the best we can, knowing it's not the best, it's not fun. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Brown. If there's no more discussion, the motion is on the board for Council to consider.

I move that we adopt Resolution 2026-R-43, approving the operating and capital budgets for Midvale City, State of Utah, for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Rory, will you call the ayes and nays?

Yes. Council Member Brown?

Yes.

McElhosh? Yes. Billings? Yes. Glover? Aye. Ann Robinson? Aye.

Okay, that passes unanimously. Thank you, everyone, for your hard work. We don't have any other items on the agenda today, so I will look for a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. Second.

Motion and a second. All those in favor of adjournment, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, we are adjourned, everyone.