Ivins • Faced with a $540,000 shortfall in its proposed 2026 fiscal year budget, Ivins City Council members are turning to residents of the small but fast-growing city to get the red out.
City officials are proposing to raise property taxes by almost 34%, which would bring an additional $860,000 into city coffers, according to the official notice posted on the city’s website.
If approved by the council, the notice states, the city’s portion of the tax on a $743,000 residence would rise from roughly $358 to $480 a year, which amounts to about $122 a year. Property taxes on a $743,000 business would jump from about $652 to $872, about a $220 increase.
Ivins has not raised property taxes since 2010. In that time, the city’s population has swelled by roughly 61%, from 6,800 to nearly 11,000 residents. And the need for more and better services has grown right along with the population.
Inflation a budget buster
Ivins Mayor Chris Hart, who favors the increase, said the city does not have sufficient revenues to address the shortfall and continue offering the level of service residents expect without adjusting property taxes to make up for what has been lost due to inflation.
“We can’t keep going like this,” Hart said. “It’s an unsustainable model, not only for an individual, family or business, but for a city as well.”
Utah’s Truth-in-Taxation law requires property tax rates to automatically adjust when property values change so that the tax a government entity collects remains the same. Hart is not a fan, likening the law to a boss giving a worker a salary decades ago that could never be increased unless everyone he or she provided services to said it was OK.
“That’s Truth-in-Taxation in a nutshell,” the mayor said. “Tell me how well that works.”
Council member Mike Scott also decries the current system’s inability to account for inflation, writing in his blog that “you can’t run tomorrow’s city on yesterday’s dollars.”
Aside from inflation, Scott attributes the need for a tax increase to the city’s surging population and attendant demand for more and better services. He noted in his blog that there are “more people to serve, more homes to protect, more roads to maintain, more emergency calls to answer, and more wear and tear on parks, streets, and equipment.”
“Then,” he added, “layer on inflation, the rising cost of everything from asphalt to employee health insurance to police vehicles and even standing still becomes more expensive.”
No relief money in sight
To forestall a tax hike over the past several years, Scott said the city was able to use $1.3 million from one-time COVID-19 relief funds that Congress approved in 2021 to offset budget deficits. But that money has been spent, he added.
Aside from getting the red out of Ivins’ proposed $12 million-plus budget, the extra cash from a property tax hike would be used to hire four more staff – an animal control officer, two park maintenance workers and a storm drain coordinator who would also help with public works administrative duties, according to Ivins Finance Director Cade Visser.
In addition, Visser said the money could be used to fund a $4 per-hour raise for sworn police officers, purchase four new police vehicles to update the city’s aging fleet, construct a fence at the municipal cemetery and save for future capital expenditures.
Resort revenue
Dillon Hurt, one of seven candidates vying to fill two seats on the City Council, opposes the tax hike. He said the city could use a robot or some form of automation instead of hiring extra staff. He also noted that when Black Desert, the $2 billion Ivins mega-resort in Ivins, is fully built out, the sales and room taxes it will put into city coffers will negate the need for a tax increase.
Black Desert officials project the resort will generate $57 million in room taxes and $33 million in sales tax during its first 40 years of operation. Hurt said the city should draw on its savings for a limited time until the resort revenues fully kick in.
“If we raise property taxes and then Black Desert comes online, [the city] is never going to reverse the increase,” he said.
Scott opposes raiding the city’s rainy day fund — or general fund reserves — for anything except true emergencies. For his part, Hart contends Black Desert revenues were never expected or projected to take care of all Ivins’ needs.
“So a [property tax hike] was inevitable regardless of how successful Black Desert is.”
Asked where he stands in Ivins’ property tax debate, Utah Taxpayers Association President Billy Hesterman said it’s probably time to consider an increase after 15 years to recapture the dollar amount lost to inflation.
“But taxpayers need to know what is in the details,” Hesterman said. “Are they taking care of what is necessary and essential, or are they trying to fund nice-to-haves and luxuries that could be cut out?”
As required by Utah’s tax law, city officials have notified residents of the tax proposal and will hold a 6 p.m. public hearing on Aug. 14 at City Hall.