The Summit County Council was hesitant to agree to proceed with the Truth in Taxation process as a backup option if the emergency services sales tax doesn’t pass, but officials ultimately decided to hedge their bets against an expected multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.Last month, county councilors announced their intention to pursue a potential tax hike if voters don’t approve the ballot measure. This week’s meeting was simply a formality so staff can start preparing mailers and putting information together for the public at least seven days before the general election on Nov. 5.Members of the County Council and county staff hope the 0.5% emergency services sales tax will pass, and there will be no need to cut the proposed $90 million budget or raise property taxes to make up the difference in revenue.County Manager Shayne Scott said there’s a projected $7 million funding gap if the emergency services sales tax does not pass and the county doesn’t pursue Truth in Taxation. “We want you to know that getting us to a balanced budget without the emergency services sales tax would be a heavy lift. We just want you to know that’s an activity that’s going to be very, very challenging for us,” he said on Wednesday.Scott presented a list of possible service and program reductions, including $2 million for new positions; up to $1.2 million for a mental wellness program; $1.2 million in cost of living adjustments; $900,000 in merit increases; up to $600,000 for school resource officers; $300,000 for planning on the 910 Cattle Ranch and Ure Ranch properties; $280,000 for dependent care assistance; $250,000 for a regional housing authority; $100,000 for expanding the senior citizen program; and $100,000 for a Recorder’s Office program. “We could technically go through a process of instructing the school district that instead of SROs, they would need to do a guardian program. It’s not as simple as arming teachers, as some people say, but it’s an employee,” he said. “That person would need to be trained by the Sheriff’s Office. So there would be some costs incurred in that. I think the sheriff has made it clear that is not the way he recommends that we go.”Scott also suggested a hiring freeze to save money, but the total amount would depend on employee turnover and he said it could become problematic.County staff previously said property taxes would need to be raised by around 81% to generate the same revenue that would be created by the emergency services sales tax. However, Chief Finance Officer Matt Leavitt explained only a partial year would be collected in 2025 — putting the revenue at $7 million.Property taxes now only need to be raised about 40% if the emergency services sales tax fails. The impact on a property owner would be approximately $15.25 per $100,000 of taxable value based on the 2024 numbers. Leavitt said that is not the same as market value. The average home in Summit County is valued at more than $2 million. Officials speculated the average homeowner would see an increase of around $300 in the first year.“We’ve been talking about an 81% increase to the general fund that was to make up the entire amount that we are trying to generate with the emergency services sales tax,” Scott said. “So the 81% was kind of a worst-case scenario, and we didn’t know exactly how much we would get.”Scott and Leavitt presented a $90 million budget to the County Council last week, which was balanced assuming either the emergency services sales tax goes through or officials pursue Truth in Taxation. The proposed budget is about $7 million larger than last year’s. That’s even after the budget committee made $10 million in cuts, meaning many requests will be pushed off until 2026.The $89.5 million total for next year includes $49.9 million in the General Fund, $32.7 million in the Municipal Services Fund and $7.2 million in the Assessing and Collecting Fund. It doesn’t include 20 requests for full-time positions, ramping up senior services, funding for housing or master planning other than $250,000 allocated for the regional housing authority or the remodel of the County Courthouse in Coalville.Around 65% of Summit County’s revenue in 2025 is projected to come from property taxes, about $35 million, and sales taxes, almost $17 million. The actual decision to raise taxes doesn’t have to be made until December, so officials have plenty of time to withdraw from Truth in Taxation if they choose, similar to last year.Summit County has not raised tax rates since 2017. The state recommends local governments go through the process at least every five years to avoid large increases in the municipal services and general funds. Those pay for about 90% of county operations, such as operating ambulances, road maintenance, community development and planning, the library and public health.“Since we did it in 2017, we had a pandemic, and we avoided it during that period of time. Coming out of the pandemic and the inflation that we were facing, and everything else, we’ve done all kinds of things to avoid Truth in Taxation. I think now is the time to do it, to at least put it on the table, preserve the ability to do that if we have a shortfall as we go through this budget process and decide what the needs ultimately are,” County Councilor Roger Armstrong said. He and the other county councilors were clear they don’t want to raise taxes, but many factors are contributing to the potential increase.“So, this is not about improving the budget. We may disagree. We may come back and not ask you to cut $6.5 million, but we may ask you to cut two or three or some number, and we’ll see what that leaves at the end of the day. But I think that it’s probably incumbent upon us, and responsible of us to at least tee this up,” Armstrong said. The emergency services sales tax is equivalent to one penny for every two dollars spent. Gas, groceries, prescription medications and a few other items are exempt.More than 65% of the sales tax would be paid for by nonresidents. Visitors create 40% of the solid waste in the county and are responsible for 50% of fire department calls and 90% of search-and-rescue reports.County staff sees the 0.5% tax as a way to reduce the impact on local residents and force tourists to pay their fair share.If the emergency services sales tax doesn’t pass, there will be tax hearings on Dec. 4 and 11. Budget discussions will occur throughout December. Officials have until the end of the year to approve the 2025 budget.The post How much would Summit County property taxes increase if sales tax fails? appeared first on Park Record.