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A frequent critic of Utah bonding efforts is standing down as voters consider a $245 million proposal by Jordan School District.
After meeting with district administrators, the Utah Taxpayers Association "determined to not oppose" the bond for new schools in the fast-growing southwest corner of Salt Lake County, association Vice President Billy Hesterman said.
"The district has made significant efforts to cut and control construction costs with this new proposal," Hesterman said, "which is one of our main concerns when bonds are considered."
The Utah Taxpayers Association opposed the Jordan School District's last attempt at a bond, a $495 million campaign in 2013.
Voters balked at the half-billion-dollar price tag — intended to cover a laundry list of new construction and renovation projects — rejecting the bond by a 35-point margin.
School district representatives, including Superintendent Patrice Johnson and school board President Susan Pulsipher, discussed their plans for the proposed bond with The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board on Thursday.
The funds would be used to build six schools and is estimated to cost an additional $16.80 per year in property taxes on a $300,000 home.
Proposed construction projects include a new high school and a rebuild of the roughly 60-year-old West Jordan Middle School.
"It's going to be an enormous boost to the attitude of the community," said board member Janice Voorhies, who represents West Jordan.
School district representatives say new schools are needed to relieve overcrowding as the population swells.
In the three years since the last bond failed, the Jordan school board has approved 15 school boundary changes and shifted several elementary schools to a year-round schedule to house more students.
And an informational video produced by the district claims that if left unchecked, enrollment growth at Herriman High School will necessitate 85 portable classrooms in five years, which would approach the height of the Empire State Building if stacked.
But the district also signed off on a package of property tax incentives aimed at luring Facebook to build a data center in Salt Lake County.
Those incentives were blocked by the Salt Lake County Council and state school board — although negotiations are ongoing — but Hesterman said the school district's willingness to give away tens of millions of dollars in property tax revenue undermines the need for new funding.
"The optics of that gesture sure send mixed messages to the taxpayers within the district," Hesterman said.
Pulsipher said there were many unknowns with the Facebook proposal, but the district believed the potential benefits outweighed the initial deferral of tax dollars.
She also said the property eyed by Facebook is likely to be developed in some fashion, whether that be by a business that injects commercial value into the area or by homes that add more children to already overloaded classrooms.
"We love to have children come [to Jordan]," Pulsipher said. "But we need to have the property tax base to provide for them."
The district is planning 56 open houses aimed at educating residents about the bond.
And Pulsipher said there is no more room for the district to find savings in its budget, as it did after the failure of the 2013 bond.
"We did it," she said. "There's no more there."
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