Proposed tax hike in Cache County draws ire from residents at packed hearing

LOGAN — Cache County officials faced significant pushback on a proposed property tax increase from residents and former county officials who came out in droves for Tuesday's Truth in Taxation hearing.

The county is facing a budgetary gap of over $7 million to maintain current operations and a 20% property tax increase totaling $3,580,300 is being considered for the 2025 budget. County officials said the increase is needed "to meet competitive wage increases, additional staffing needs, infrastructure projects and inflationary costs of goods," according to a notice sent to residents.

Cumulative inflation, which has increased by over 20% in the last five years, "impacts all areas of the county's operation," Wesley Bingham, finance administration supervisor for the county, said. "Its personnel, its operating expenses and its capital costs across the board."

The average primary residential property value — around $528,000 — would see a tax increase of up to $63.76 for the year, according to Bingham, if the county council were to approve the maximum tax increase allowed.

The room was so full of dissenting voices on Tuesday that some had to wait outside for their turn to speak. The crowd periodically broke into applause as their neighbors protested the proposed increase.

Concerns from residents

"I was shocked when we got the notice and it said that we were increasing property taxes by 20%," said former Cache County executive Lynn Lemon, speaking as a resident at the meeting. "To me, that's a huge increase."

Lemon argued the staffing, wage and inflation the tax would address should be taken care of by income from the continuing influx of people to the valley. "I don't think you need to drive very far around the county to see all the new growth," he said.

Many residents cited their growing tax bill as a significant cause for concern.

"We're retired teachers. We live on our Social Security and our teacher retirement," said Ann Novelle. "I just am asking you to consider the very personal repercussions that this tax increase will have on the people."

Others questioned if they were getting a fair share of county services based on their tax payments. Ron James, representing around 150 property owners in a remote development south of Hardware Ranch, said, "Our concern, basically, is we don't see too many county services for what we're paying. ... I think the property taxes ought to reflect the services you receive."

Jess Bradfield, former county clerk and auditor, said, "The county is known to be conservative — and excessively so — and so I would ask the council to please look at incremental changes over time."

Cache County ranks fourth-lowest on property tax charged in the state, according to Bingham.

It was brought up that eight of 10 elected positions in the county went unopposed this election cycle, including three council seats.

"That's on us as citizens to allow you all to run unopposed," said Chris Wimpy, of Smithfield. "I can't help but wonder if you had run opposed in close elections if we would be looking at adding 20% to every citizen's tax bill."

Budget needs in Cache County

County Executive David Zook previously brought a baseline budget to the County Council, Bingham told KSL.com, and without factoring in capital personnel increases or any change in tax revenue, he said, "There was a $7.1 million gap in funding with just that baseline budget."

On top of that, every department has new requests for consideration — education, training and conference attendance, two Chevy Trailblazers for the assessor's office and more.

The roof of the county jail is at the end of its life cycle and needs to be replaced, Bingham says, and the county is looking to sell two snowplows with over 200,000 miles on them to buy new ones.

The county has been forced to eat into its savings the past two years, according to Bingham, which were estimated in the meeting to be around $24 million.

Property taxes haven't increased since 2020 and haven't occurred "often or with any significance in the last 25 years," he said.

In 2024, the county property tax rate was 0.1124%, according to state records. That rate has dropped by over 41% since 2015. "It's really pushed the can down the road, especially when it comes to infrastructure within the county," he said, calling the lack of increases a "disservice to the citizens."

"I think long term, it was kind of disservice to the citizens to not increase property tax more, yeah, more frequently, you know, and be, you know, be more detailed about, you know, the capital within the county and what, what needs to be maintained."

The county has seen tremendous growth in the past year.

Cache County Auditor Brett Robinson told KSL.com that, so far in 2024, there has been an increase of 3.55% in taxable parcels, which will likely grow by the end of December. That high level of growth has "never been seen, as far as I know, certainly back for 25 years," he said.

And while commenters like Lemon said growth should fund the budgetary shortfall, Bingham believes growth "is not going to address the gap in funding for all the different operational costs, and for what inflation has done to our costs."

"All those people who move into these new houses, they're now citizens that are going to demand services," he said. "They need public safety; they need their road to be snowplowed ... The revenue we get from growth is basically offset with costs for the same growth."

Multiple residents at the meeting cited their growing tax burden, mistakenly attributing that to an increase in property value over time. However, the county does not tax the rising value of real estate in the area.

"As property values rise, the rate drops and we get the same amount of revenue," Bingham said. "We're only guaranteed the same amount as we had last year."

The county property tax is just one piece of the puzzle, however, representing an estimated 17% of the tax burden, depending on where residents are. In comparison, the school districts see around 68% of residents' taxes, all depending on what taxing zone a person resides in.

After the crowd filed out of the hearing, the County Council continued working through the 2025 budget. Possibly motivated by the comments minutes before, Council Chairman Dave Erickson said the group was looking for any cuts they could make, "and there'll probably be some hard pills to swallow."

"I worry that we're doing a lot of services for other entities ... or just nice things outside of what we as a county should even be involved in," he said. In the coming weeks, the council agreed to evaluate the departments that have seen disproportionate increases in budget, looking for areas to cut.

Bingham told KSL.com he plans on releasing an end-of-year budget document for the public with detailed information about specific capital requests.

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