Council Gives Tentative Approval
For 2013 Salt Lake County Budget
After three weeks of discussions, the Salt Lake County Council has given tentative approval to most of Mayor Peter Corroon’s 2013 budget proposal. Final adoption of the budget will follow a council public hearing the evening of Tuesday, December 11, 2012.Included in the budget will be a 16.2% property tax increase designed in part to fund rehabilitation and renovation of aging county facilities and partial restoration of lost salary and benefits for county employees.
“We have five years of pent-up budget demand while we struggle to address multi-million dollar issues,” says Mayor Corroon. “This budget will address a structural financial deficit, lagging employee compensation, rising fuel and other utility costs, increasing service demands and a growing list of deferred capital maintenance needs.”
A dozen years ago in December, 2000, the outgoing County Commission approved a tax increase—the last countywide tax increase. At that time:
• A gallon of gas cost $1.26
• US Postage Stamps were 33 cents each
• The average home price in SLCo was $156,000
In twelve years all those costs have risen significantly.
“We put off a tax increase during the height of the Great Recession. We absorbed our rising costs to off-set the impact on county taxpayers,” added Mayor Corroon. “We have waited as long as we responsibly could wait before requesting an increase.”
The 16.2% property tax increase applies only to the County portion of property taxes, about 3%, or $59 per year on a $238,000 home in Salt Lake County.
The tentative budget, if adopted in its present form, protects the County’s Triple-A bond rating, structurally balances the budget for the next four years and re-coups some employee compensation dating back to 2009.
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