In early May, Mayor Monica Zoltanski proposed a tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2023 to the Sandy City Council.

“I am asking for a property tax increase. There’s the headline,” Zoltanski said. “We cannot defer it any longer. I’m asking the average Sandy household to pay $9 a month more in property taxes. You’re going to have a very visceral reaction, as did I, when I learned what it really takes to run the city.”

Most councilmembers did indeed express a strong reaction to the budget, which would raise the average homeowner’s tax bill by approximately $100 a year. The tax increase would create $4 million in new revenue to the $143-million dollar budget.

“I am passionately disappointed in this tentative budget,” said Councilmember Marci Houseman. “Though you acknowledged that there was no disrespect intended, I believe the tentative budget dismisses the extensive time the council has spent on determining the way forward with our various capital projects.” 

Brian Kelley, the finance director for Sandy City, presented the budget along with guiding financial principles and revenue policies. 

“The priorities I showed in the presentation were directly from Council staff,” Kelley said. “We addressed compensation, which was the number one priority, we addressed fleet replacement….We addressed that fire department 3:2 staffing. And I know there were four votes against a property tax increase, but that did not make the top five. A property tax isn’t a priority for us either. We’re trying to strike a balance and still maintain good quality services that are exemplary. And we don’t see how you can accomplish both.”

An area of disagreement is how to pay for a new fire station. The council already voted to bring forward a general obligation bond that Sandy residents would either approve or decline in November. Instead, the mayor proposes adding the construction costs to this year’s budget. 

“We’re having two different kinds of tax increases that are being proposed here with very different impacts on the tax paying public,” said Councilmember Cyndi Sharkey. “This one is imposing $4 million a year forever, or until a future council decides that they want to reduce the tax amount or increase it or whatever. There’s another type of tax increase where you ask the voters if they agree to a tax increase, and there’s a start date and an end date.”

Houseman agreed. “I feel we need to honor the work that the council has done. We need to build Fire Station 31 with a bond that sunsets, not a property tax increase that will never go away.”

Kelley noted that if the fire station is paid for with a general obligation bond, and no other changes were made, the property tax increase would drop by four percentage points.

What is in the budget?

“Did you know that our police and fire expenses are 53% of our general fund?” Zoltanski said. “Our employee compensation is 76% of our budget. So that’s not a lot of fluff. There’s not a lot of new, exciting, beautiful projects getting launched. It is the people and the safety that is driving this budget.” 

The budget proposes new senior positions for firefighter paramedics, a new Animal Services officer position that has been requested by the Police Department for several years and denied each time, and a part-time arts guide producer. Zoltanski noted that even with these new positions, Sandy would employ fewer staff than 15 years ago, before the Great Recession. 

“Last year, we changed from two hands on a fire engine to three,” Zoltanski said. “And we’ve had stories come to the mayor’s office about lives and property saved from the moment the change was made last fall with the council’s support. We’ve made it clear to our firefighters we are not turning back. That requires eight new firefighters and that’s not cheap.” 

Sharkey reminded the mayor that the council set aside excess revenue to cover the increased firefighter staffing in fiscal year 2024 so that a tax increase wouldn’t be needed.

Kelley acknowledged the proposed general obligation bond and measures to pay for increased staffing, but defended the tentative budget.

“It’s consistent with our guiding financial principles and policies,” Kelley said. “Where we have deviated from some of those resolutions, they were contrary to policies that have been adopted and been on our books for decades. We recommended at the time not to do the fire staffing using one-time funds.”

Nearly 9% of the budget—$4.5 million—is allocated for an overall compensation plan, which includes a targeted market adjustment to salaries. During the council meeting on May 5, city attorney Lynn Pace explained that his department’s biggest asset is the employees. 

“We could not replace them for what they’re being paid now,” Pace said. “The challenge is that we have extraordinary people who are extraordinarily underpaid.” 

Aside from staffing, many other costs have gone up. Diesel fuel alone increased by 97% in the past two years. Other unforeseen expenses, such as the record snowfall and resources diverted to runoff and flood preparation put a strain on the current budget.

 “I recognize our city has needs,” said Houseman in a newsletter to her constituents. “I recognize that some of the needs are more urgent than others. What I have yet to see from this mayor is any effort to prioritize the needs….The mayor and I have very different perspectives on the ‘right now’ needs.”

How do Sandy’s taxes compare?

During her presentation, Zoltanski shared the property tax bill for her own home that is valued at $628,000, very close to the Sandy median. She pointed out that the largest taxing agency on her bill is the Canyons School District and Sandy City is the fourth. The proposed increase would just be on the Sandy City portion—a 3% increase to a household’s overall tax bill.

“When you do small incremental tax increases you can avoid this,” Zoltanski said. “Here in Sandy we like to put that off. Going forward, my pledge is to keep small, incremental increases. The percentage sounds high, but what would the cost of inaction be?”

Sandy has occasionally decreased tax rates in recent decades, using sales tax growth and grants to keep up. Even with the proposed tax increase, the property taxes paid on the average Sandy home would still be comparable to those paid on average homes in Draper, Bluffdale, West Jordan and Murray. 

“During COVID we did a lot of belt tightening,” Zoltanski said. “We eliminated and deferred a lot of financial investment as a city that we would have been doing for the last three years. This year we can’t put that off any longer.”

City councilmembers pointed out that there have been fee increases in Sandy, including a recent water rate increase. 

“Rather than taking a strategic approach to the challenges the city is facing, Mayor Zoltanski wants to throw money at all of the challenges all at once,” said Houseman in her newsletter. “Doing so will not give us the opportunity to measure which investments worked. This approach is alarming. I have no doubt that taxpayer money will be wasted because we are spending money on everything all at once rather than in an incremental, strategic and measurable way.”

What happens next?

By the end of June, the council will accept, reject or amend the tentative budget. The mayor encourages all Sandy residents and stakeholders to view the budget priorities videos on Sandy’s website: www.sandy.utah.gov/2126/2023-Budget-Priorities.

“From now until the passage of the final budget, the city council will listen to and consider resident feedback, review department budget requests, examine capital needs, and assess personnel requirements,” said council chairperson Alison Stroud in a statement to the Sandy Journal. “Before adopting a final budget, we will weigh the need for quality services versus the overall cost of those services to residents and business owners. Councilmembers may also take this time to propose their own amendments to the tentative budget.”

The council believes they can make the budget work without increasing the property tax this year.

“We cannot place an additional burden upon taxpayers at a time when the members of our community are struggling under the increased burden that inflation and reckless spending have created,” Houseman said in her newsletter. “It is likely that a property tax increase may be needed in the future. But now is not the time.” λ