Heber City resident Keaton Hansen nervously checks his bank account every time he gets groceries at Walmart. He has five kids, aged 2 to 12, and said he can’t afford daycare. He drives a car manufactured in 2003. Despite working as a nurse at Intermountain Health Heber Valley Hospital and having two side hustles, he’s “drowning” in bills to the point of “depression.” So, when Hansen heard the Heber City Council is considering a 4.8% property tax increase, he knew he had to voice his dissent. City Finance Director Sara Nagel provided context to the tax increase at a Heber City Council public hearing on Wednesday, explaining that a home valued at $850,000 would pay an additional $16.83 — about the price of a burrito meal at a restaurant.  “I’m not getting $16 burritos. I’m getting PBJ’s,” Hansen told the City Council. “It really is that dramatic. … We’re dying out there.” Heber City’s proposed tax increase would generate an additional $174,000 for its general fund during fiscal year 2027, which began July 1. The general fund supports administration, public safety, planning and general operations.  Nagel said the proposed increase is intended to keep up with inflation and maintain the current level of service. She added that the city is essentially asking for more property tax revenue to maintain its current purchasing power. The city’s yearly budget is built by Nagel and City Manager Matt Brower from the ground up every year. That means every department must request and justify every dollar they plan to spend. “We’re not asking for frosting here, and we’ve already achieved that by saying no to many (department requests),” Nagel said.  But residents who attended the public hearing said they were more than happy with the city cutting back on spending to lessen or eliminate the tax increase.  Rick Anderton suggested the city “DOGE” its overall budget, referring to the cost-cutting federal agency led by Elon Musk that dissolved last month. Several residents said they would be more than happy to sacrifice spending on downtown revitalization projects like the Main Street Park redesign and the pedestrian-only alleyway, C Street. Part of the purpose of these projects is to draw in tourists and bolster the local economy, but they also come with price tags as high as $15 to 18 million, in the park’s case.  “You don’t need extravagance. We don’t need luxury. Let’s get back to basics,” Hansen said. Nagel clarified that the general fund does not directly funnel into these projects and that they instead have indirect fiscal impacts, like staff time spent working on them. In the park’s case, the only city funding will be Trails, Arts and Park tax revenue and impact fees, one-time fees paid by developers. A trip to Folsom, California, that Brower and several city councilors are taking next month became a subject of ire from many of the residents who packed the room. The one-day trip, Brower explained, will allow them to meet with Folsom elected officials, learn how they operate the city and bring the insights back home. City officials went on a similar trip to three cities in Colorado two years ago. Funding for the trip will come from the general fund, according to Nagel. Wasatch County Republican Party Vice Chair Patty Sprunt suggested Heber City and Folsom officials meet virtually instead, given the current economy. Sprunt recalled a conversation she’d had with a financially struggling resident who called his taxes “death by a thousand cuts.” She added that she moved from California to Utah for the lower taxes. She’s concerned by Heber City’s trajectory of more frequent tax rate increases.  Heber City has increased its property tax rate five times in the past 30 years. Three of those increases were in the past five years, the most recent being a 9.3% increase in 2024. Nagel said several cities are moving toward smaller, more frequent tax increases to avoid larger, infrequent increases like the 32.3% increase Heber City experienced in 2015. “When city councils delay property taxes to the point of a crisis, and then they have to, it creates headlines,” she said. “No government agency wants to be a headline.” Former Heber City Councilor Scott Phillips, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor last fall, agreed. He was the only commenter in favor of the increase. “These nominal increases are important so that we don’t have to have a 50, 60, 70% increase in one year,” he said.  But for Mayor Heidi Franco, that wasn’t a good enough justification. She pointed out that everyone is facing inflation, and that the city could cut costs to avoid placing further burden on residents.  “We can defer some vehicle purchases to more than make up this deficit,” she said. “To me, making sure that you are able to pay your bills and be able to take care of your own situations is just as important as the city being able to pay its bills.” It will be the City Council, not Franco, that votes on the proposed tax rate increase, scheduled for Aug. 18. None of the councilors shared how they plan to vote.  However, City Councilor Yvonne Barney said she felt “angry and frustrated,” just as many other residents did. She said most of her family cannot afford to live in Heber City and recalled her mother never buying anything she asked for as a kid, even if it was only 10 cents. “For a single mother raising a child in Arizona, who was renting all the time, it was too much,” Barney said. “It is hard, and we need to recognize that just nickels and dimes really do affect the budget.” The post ‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Heber City residents oppose near 5% property tax rate increase appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less