A grassroots effort to force a referendum over Salt Lake County’s planned property tax hike is now collecting signatures.
The County Council approved a 14.65% property tax increase on Dec. 9 as part of its 2026 budget. The hike would generate an additional $36.5 million, county officials have said, to pay for rising operational costs and investments in public safety.
The tax boost would also help against inflation, because the revenues from property taxes don’t increase with property values, county officials argue. Instead, when property values rise with inflation, the tax rate decreases. So the county collects the same revenue from property taxes as the year before.
Opponents counter that the planned tax hike is the “straw that will break the camel’s back for many families, seniors, and residents on fixed incomes,” according to a Friday news release from the group pushing the referendum.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office cleared the way for the referendum petition Wednesday. The group now has 45 days to gather about 45,000 signatures from residents to get the issue on November’s ballot.
Goud Maragani, a former Republican candidate for Salt Lake County clerk, is leading the push against the tax hike.
“This referendum gives taxpayers a voice before another major tax hike takes effect,” Maragani said in Friday’s release. “Families, seniors, and residents on fixed incomes are already stretched thin. This process ensures voters — not bureaucrats — make the final decision.”
Certification of the property tax doesn’t take place until June. Until then, Deputy Mayor of Finance Darrin Casper warned, the county will have to proceed “with caution”with any planned spending from the hike.
“We funded a whole host of necessary expansions for the criminal-justice system, basically public safety systems,” Casper explained. “Whether that was for the Sheriff’s Office, or the district attorney’s office, Criminal Justice Services and the legal defender — all had requests that were granted that helped them cope with their expanded workloads, and so we’re going to have to grapple with that.”
For a few months, the potential referendum won’t be a major issue, Casper said. But if the petition succeeds and the issue moves to the November ballot, the county will have to undergo “pretty significant cutbacks” to public safety, human service operations and parks and recreation, he added. That’s because even if voters then approve the tax increase in November, the referendum would delay the county’s receipt of additional tax revenue by a year.
“If we’re short $37 million, it won’t just be some new attorneys for the district attorney’s office, the legal defender and aspects of law enforcement,” Casper said. “It’ll be pretty severe pain. We’ll have to go back and curtail operations that rely on property taxes to a fairly significant amount.”
Referendum proponents dismiss such talk as predictable “sky is falling” rhetoric.
If the referendum passes, it would pause the tax increase while the county evaluates alternatives to reduce its overall spending by less than 2%, their release notes, a level of adjustment “that families routinely make when budgets tighten.”
They suggested a four-pronged approach for the county to cut its spending.
• Erase administrative bloat and focus leadership resources on core county functions.
• Eliminate or consolidate duplicative county offices.
• Improve public safety efficiency without cutting core services.
• After the above steps, apply a modest reduction across all county departments and agencies if needed.
“Salt Lake County residents are not arguing for inaction,” referendum supporters said in the release. “They are advocating for responsible, prioritized budgeting that protects core services while eliminating waste and inefficiency.”