[0:28] I

[0:58] for e

[1:55] can you guys hear me okay great welcome tonight

[2:00] today is the

[2:10] 8v

[2:16] EXC don't feel bad I just can't

[2:21] talk absolutely um we're gonna have a pledge and prayer first to hold the

[2:25] meeting and then we'll do introductions uh

[2:31] um so we asked Am Blake shead us followed

[2:51] by United States of [Music]

[2:57] America na indivisible with liy and justice for all

[3:40] okay so I'll make a quick introduction my left your right on the end is

[3:49] L

[3:52] myiss is Mike Blake I'm the chair of the County Commission to my right is B

[3:58] cousins county commissioner and our County

[4:02] cler John John

[4:07] wer I didn't know if I was going to be able to get it out or not like come on

[4:12] boys okay so uh first of all tonight um for anyone that wants uh wants to make

[4:20] any comment there is a laptop in the back we ask that you go uh if you

[4:25] haven't already uh sign into that stop for comment that's we're going to uh

[4:32] pull from that list to hear public comment tonight so we're a little bit

[4:36] more organized

[4:40] um back by the back door um I'm going to start out tonight

[4:49] basically by reading

[4:53] uh oh basically just just a statement that we are uh required read by law it

[5:02] will hopefully explain a few things as some details in it

[5:08] ollowing

[5:12] open com rules to that we get to that point

[5:18] uh and then we will answer questions tonight we're not taking any action on

[5:23] this this is simply a public hearing um the uh

[5:30] we'll will'll finish up the process and this will be an action item on the

[5:45] regular number one iron county is intending to increase

[5:50] the general fund property tax rate doll amount of increase per year excuse me

[5:56] per year will be $1.2 million the purpose of the proposed increase is

[6:01] due to the growing community and the need to enhance and expand essential

[6:05] services to support the safety wellbeing and quality of life for all residents

[6:11] first with our population steadily increasing there is a greater demand for

[6:14] public service including law enforcement and legal services second inflation has

[6:20] significantly impacted operational costs across the board from Personnel to

[6:25] equipment and insurance the last time Iron County did a tax increase the

[6:29] general CL was in 2003 in order to maintain and improve

[6:34] the quality of services we provide is necessary to adjust this funding source

[6:40] the approximate percentage of increase on County general fund tax rate is

[6:44] estimated 19.5% this is only on the county portion

[6:50] of property taxes in relation to property taxes as a whole this is about

[6:56] two this is about a 2% increase the tax on a personal residence

[7:01] valued at $418,000 which is the the county average

[7:07] that's the median house price in iron count would increase by

[7:14] $35.60 per year for

[7:20] $2.97 so uh we

[7:25] open first

[7:42] how dare you how dare you

[7:54] try now we havex public hearing tonight we Friday night 6m

[8:02] hour was that on purpose trying to sneak things

[8:07] by count res your last how dare you because your

[8:13] last raise taxes negative impa on our

[8:23] school right

[8:26] before mail out General being raised trying to

[8:34] sa school students

[8:38] of traed the educational interest of our students in school or not only prison

[8:48] but the excuse Haven had increase years I've been retired for more than 10

[8:57] I don't get an increase at all I can't even

[9:01] ask um and with the inflation mention part

[9:07] cost I have to make adjustments in my own

[9:11] sp so my question to you when are you going to start living

[9:16] withs in this County all over taxed

[9:22] overed and you guys are over spending thank you

[9:29] [Applause]

[9:42] fr

[10:13] [Music]

[10:19] know

[10:30] and

[11:17] C

[11:29] now we got the sales tax increas only been like six months and then we're back

[11:34] to

[11:39] this I'm G ask everybody to hold their Applause both on either side oh listen

[11:45] to this is we I

[11:50] forgot all right

[11:55] so next but I I told you that I agre that I would lay out the ground rules

[12:00] and I forgot each speaker is limited to two

[12:04] minutes please don't repeat what others have said please hold your applause on

[12:10] both sides until the end of public comments uh what's to be said is to be

[12:16] directed to the commission without attacks on other people's character

[12:20] those are the general rules that we have for all our public hearings and those

[12:24] are the rules that I'm going to ask you to follow

[12:26] to so moving on

[12:42] yes we're gonna so you can

[12:52] ask no we we'll do our best to answer questions uh

[13:05] sometimes sometimes we write down questions and hold them till the end and

[13:08] answer them but we'll do our best to answer questions as we

[13:13] go also

[13:22] [Music]

[13:57] yeah so in government we're only allowed to have

[14:01] so much money in savings can't ra taxes so we have so much

[14:14] money we have

[14:21] enough yeah we try to

[14:30] but we try to stay that range not too

[14:35] high pretty close yeah some years we'll we'll use some of our savings and some

[14:41] years We'll add to that savings we also have a capital projects fund where we

[14:46] put money aside for big projects that come up say one of the buildings Remodel

[14:52] and we'll have

[15:18] know

[15:51] fr

[16:17] no absolutely not and and well sure there are programs through our H office

[16:27] treasur office un a to make their their property tax payments their our

[16:34] programs uh to help that

[17:08] why say we do everything we can to work for

[17:11] those cases there are programs that are in

[17:15] place

[17:19] place the office is well

[17:32] now

[18:00] brother

[18:43] sometimes fix fix

[18:56] problem who's the next

[19:08] famously called commissars remember

[19:14] that ever since I got up here and spoke out against the

[19:18] jail I've been hassled by code enforcement and pulled over excessive

[19:24] amount of times [Music]

[19:29] I tell you what I don't like your rules man because you guys forget about the

[19:36] Constitution people have a right to say what they want to say it doesn't fall in

[19:41] line kissing your butts like I know you want used to Dave I'm gonna ask you to

[19:48] sit down this doesn't have anything to do with the first am right to say what

[19:52] the hell have a First Amendment right we also this is a public meeting you're

[19:55] under the Constitution sir D no if you don't get to make rules that

[20:01] violate the constitutional rights of everybody in here I will call of course

[20:05] you will of course you will because you are

[20:09] law enforcement why don't you call code enforcement on me

[20:13] again huh da this is outside the parameters of the public hearing I'm

[20:18] working on a federal lawsuit against these folks you'll be served

[20:23] soon awesome okay

[20:29] speaker is Ed

[20:55] people home tax

[21:03] not almost 3% more now my retirement has gone

[21:10] up I've been retired 41 years

[21:21] I'm kill us espe lot of been retired amount of time

[21:36] so I'm confused I spent a lot of years in the military serving this country and

[21:44] all [Music]

[21:59] the next speaker

[22:10] is the question that I don't

[22:57] going

[23:21] [Music]

[23:24] this is a little comp C clean up

[23:30] my so the way that so so first of all Iron County collects the taxes only our

[23:37] portion of property tax is about 10% rest of the school districts here City

[23:43] municipalities water consy so the way that it works the IR

[23:48] county is a lot of a certain amount of money through taxes so as propery values

[23:54] go up tax rates actually decrease so even though the value else go the am

[24:04] count takes in is the

[24:12] [Music] same I mean it's it's but basically as

[24:20] as hous vales of houses go which is exponential property tax rates actually

[24:27] decrease which keeps us the same amount of money

[24:31] coming when those property values go up we don't get more money the only money

[24:37] that we get that comes in is on New Growth and just for for instance our our

[24:44] Revenue increase in New Growth this year is about

[24:49] $200,000 new grow that we that we get as the

[24:54] account um so

[24:59] that has that's I that covers roads that covers law enforcement that covers coun

[25:11] AG that new grow we get that $200,000 to just put that in perspective

[25:20] uh that would only hire one and a half police that wouldn't buy a new piece

[25:27] ofip

[25:36] what's it's I mean it's

[25:46] just right so I actually have at the end of this I figur there be questions on

[25:52] this I actually have a few slides to go through after this to show the history

[25:56] of the tax rate and then what happens when values change and how that affects

[26:03] taxes so I have that the next speaker is Mrs

[26:28] my question

[27:07] why arees charged up front a high portion to

[27:22] cover

[27:26] think respons

[27:46] yeah so unfortunately we can't charge the higher tax rate for certain people

[27:52] or certain buildings but when they do build a new building that is when we do

[27:57] get new property tax that mik was referring to

[28:01] so like he said this year our new growth was

[28:06] $145,000 in our general fund from new properties being built and so they'll

[28:12] start paying property taxes but we can't charge them extra in the first year they

[28:19] they pay the same property factur as everyone

[28:23] else Char tax char

[28:41] rules and the count unless it's

[28:48] un does kind of that

[28:51] happens cities and also appropriated areas but then the other end we

[29:06] have you only been here years P

[29:12] more to people

[29:17] build and bu

[29:44] so you bring up a good point with building permits so we do have building

[29:48] permit fees I mean there there are the we can't charge an initial like moving

[29:55] moving in tax but there are building uh those type of things and that really

[30:02] does help offset that does bring Revenue into the

[30:07] county so that we're not so reliant on just property tax property tax is one

[30:13] Revenue stream but we do get we do get revenue for building perits um if we

[30:20] didn't we would we wouldn't be able to function at all

[30:26] um there are so many different funds there's there's certain parameters on

[30:31] different funds of where that money can be

[30:34] spent um for instance you know there's a certain of money that can only be spent

[30:40] on public sa whether it be fire or police um there's a certain percentage

[30:45] of money that can only be spent for assessing and

[30:50] collecting we do bring fees we bring in recording fees we bring in uh building

[30:56] permit fees uh without those things we wouldn't be able

[31:01] to function so the you know the increase to property tax is is specific and I'll

[31:11] tell you where that money's go specifically it's going to go uh so

[31:17] that we can give our employees that we can continue to pay our employees and

[31:22] continue offer health insurance that's where this increase is

[31:26] going incre is solely

[31:32] going we're looking at a very small cost of

[31:35] Liv increase for employees this year that's uh numerous percentage points

[31:42] below the national average for cost of living but it's what we can

[31:48] afford our employees are citizens as well without them the county doesn't run

[31:55] and if we don't pay them a living wage and that's my point

[32:02] I'm of living Cedar City than it

[32:08] is Washington all these other

[32:14] stes people have a lot of money and want to relocate here it's increasing the

[32:19] cost of living people already live here is there not some way we can

[32:25] require them

[32:43] the same property tax they're adding exponentially to the

[32:49] demand upon the services and infrastructure

[32:58] there's got to be some kind of equable way to take care of the people

[33:04] as family land ownership go back to

[33:09] 1971

[33:16] and started increasing recently

[33:28] e

[34:24] s

[34:52] possible

[35:26] what

[35:48] no I just you know we've I've been in the commission coming up on eight

[35:54] years we've never discussed the property tax increase honestly until

[36:01] last year we've cut and cut and

[36:06] scried for the you know 2003 it's been 21 years since since there was an

[36:12] increase to this p uh the only reason we're here tonight is because we're over

[36:18] a barrel but there is no more to come with the growth with the growth of the

[36:23] county with our responsibility as Government to to provide

[36:29] Services we we

[36:34] stretched there there is nowhere else to so each of us Commissioners have

[36:41] duties in County take

[36:46] department just for instance one of my assignments is

[36:52] Defenders

[36:55] attorney Prov and just just one example but they so

[37:02] busy that one of the judges said look you need

[37:07] to you need to hire another people and attor you know we

[37:20] p3,000 a year allow to that attor have a lot of

[37:28] that's just one example is is with our County growing we have to have

[37:36] expenses graice

[37:41] gas I've ran r

[37:50] years interesting we had a contractor call the other day and said hey you

[37:55] build a house person our house

[37:59] 201 and I back records and on on

[38:07] almost, son just W up exactly exactly

[38:14] everything so when we have Labor and we and we have excellent

[38:20] employees we we have ra and and when we have

[38:27] have increased labor and materials you have in the Count's business we bu I

[38:36] suppose this

[38:42] gentlem pick up I guess we could try some but but I think Moz and I think

[38:49] Rocky Ridge I think some of these companies that on that as their

[38:55] probably having something to about that so um to buy a road Raider in our in our

[39:02] land in our road department is twice as much

[39:07] asce so um when I was

[39:28] run the county ands we can't do and I don't welcome anybody in this

[39:33] room uh m m terms will be up in two years I may run get I don't Mike's to

[39:40] Doone of my business but any of you guys in this room are more than welcome to

[39:45] file and run as commission any one of you fol because I'm telling you right

[39:50] now it's not this is this is the worst part of I've uh I've been public service

[39:57] 14 years and until we started talking about jail we've been many

[40:04] years

[40:17] never we have we the Utah um they came out and gave we

[40:25] struggled to there was a it's a little better now but there was a

[40:29] time that we really struggled with keeping sh

[40:33] de and and we still struggle with our jail staff to our jail and

[40:41] we're down right and because we're down five employees we have find other

[40:46] employees fill shs over and and

[40:51] so it was two years ago I think the state of Utah raised the hyri patrol

[40:56] rate pay by $8 an hour what do you think happened they did that every one of

[41:03] every one of our deputies iron Washington County they

[41:08] want to be IR make an hour more what do we do Washington county is also G for

[41:14] that same wage so we have lost quite a few of our people to them so we're

[41:19] competing with all of these inflationary factors we don't know what

[41:23] to do I mean we just don't know um we we still have to get up every

[41:30] morning while we have to chip every road every

[41:36] Road in this count has to be seven years so you guys

[41:42] I'm sure a lot of you don't what that is you put you put oil oil down you put

[41:48] chip down you put and that that saves from wearing out if you don't do that

[41:53] the roads are going to fall apart and it's extremely expensive

[41:59] and so and those chips are twice the cost they used to be the oil twice the

[42:03] cost lab twice the cost and so we have the same guys and now we have all

[42:12] these we have the same 20 guys that we had 20 years

[42:17] ago so we're running the county we're still running the county

[42:22] at5 I'm open for suggestions I don't know what to do

[42:28] Services would you be will

[42:39] to don't

[42:45] and we we took over the fa and and that help the evance because

[42:52] they rant that that so perin was just going to close it up didn't want to to

[42:58] put the money for for it and it was kind of an odd situation because the

[43:04] fairgrounds was um peran it was the city and then the county of course had the

[43:11] had the fair it's County Fair and and I think it's important for the county to

[43:17] have a fair to come together we could eliminate that um we took that over and

[43:24] it has been more money um to run the fairgrounds because we're paying all the

[43:30] expenses but we went in and cleaned it up and

[43:36] and my husband and I and others help do those

[43:42] fences for free we every stick of that was donated because I knew we didn't

[43:47] have the money to do that so all that those fences and all the wheels and all

[43:53] of that were donated Frank Nick donated all of that

[43:57] and we weld it for a month straight and then put all of that up road department

[44:03] did come in and help

[44:09] us but I just think it's really important to have a fair but if we can't

[44:14] afford to we

[44:25] won't plan oh I think I think you're probably

[44:31] talking about planning or so it's just been Willy Milly put together when when

[44:37] perin didn't have the Monies to to do that and so it it's just been kind of

[44:43] thrown together so so we felt like it was really important before we did any

[44:50] more uh projects on that or anything to because there is money we have spent you

[44:57] know monies for from the tourism dollars that we can spend on that not out of the

[45:03] general fund tourism dollars that we have spend on that that that we've been

[45:08] able to do some improvements and um so so that you know

[45:14] that's been a really good thing but but we felt like we needed to back up and

[45:19] plan what what it's going to actually look like we've never done that and so

[45:24] the county is going to do put out RFP to be able to plan what a master plan on

[45:32] the fairgrounds what it would look like not not in the next few years unless we

[45:37] have a big boom which I you know I would love that

[45:42] but it's been really a fun project to work on that but we like I said we've

[45:49] never used the general couple other things I'd like to

[45:55] mention

[46:06] conru our senior center was a lot of

[46:21] in cont that buil dou of our

[46:48] street I'm not sure why we

[46:54] own I think

[47:00] but anyway we sold that building we desperately needed more room for our

[47:04] road shop to work on their equipment when they have to go down in the middle

[47:08] of the night their trucks are cold and got II and and they have to

[47:15] come it's nice to have facility they trucks C and so we built a new road

[47:24] building and we buil that bu 875,000 you bu

[47:34] that and that's how

[47:39] Department workers in the RO Department the work in the count and

[47:48] we so those are just some examples things we've done um we have beenal

[47:57] I equip whatever I can one of my ass is flooding in the we'

[48:12] had

[48:19] decied remember that about 3:00 morning that channel

[48:42] ands

[48:46] and and we have aart we have we have a fulltime

[48:51] operator we hav years and we have

[49:00] so anyway we we have him work fulltime cleaning channels so we don't know these

[49:06] are so they do PR but it jump the bank on that

[49:21] subis they

[49:28] we didn't have to we and so there's just lots of there

[49:34] lots of things you guys we have toay for this count

[49:39] and buses you know that

[49:58] [Music]

[50:01] for this year

[50:31] my name's Robert comto I'm in the same boat as a lot of these folks I'm just at

[50:36] the bottom my taxes gone 30 40% in two years two years and California did watch

[50:42] in Implement an exitx which isn't fair to me because I've spent literally at

[50:48] least $100,000 so I'm supporting the community

[50:52] and I feel I feel your pain just like just like you folks and and honestly you

[50:58] might not like this but I don't mind this what I mind is the $229 we just got

[51:04] charged for the school board a couple months ago and I thought it was unfair

[51:10] that they had students coming up and saying we need a bigger gy we need a

[51:14] bigger dance well they're they're students they want everything for free I

[51:18] want pre too they don't have I don't think they should have a voice because

[51:23] they're not taxpayers but we're not we're not I

[51:33] understand here's my here's my point here's my

[51:38] point these folks all these folks here do you look at your total tax bill you

[51:44] don't just say hey it only went up $2 no we look at our total tax bill and mine's

[51:50] going up 2300 a year okay so I've gone from 15 to close to 3,000

[51:57] so I'm not far behind you folks okay and people not everybody from

[52:02] California is down I'm retired too I want to fix

[52:07] thec and I'm I'm not getting more unless my investments which they're going to

[52:13] grow with President Trump things are going to get better under President

[52:16] Trump we were better off so I'm not down on this one I'm just down on the two or

[52:23] three that we've had this year so

[52:36] we're going to catch up to you see in California we have 2% every six

[52:42] month I'm telling you right now I st an expensive house in California it won't

[52:46] be long before my taxes will surpass what I was pay CN thank you for list let

[52:53] me we're good John Let's Get Back on TR

[52:58] Sten stepen oh he's

[53:22] [Music]

[53:45] I moved here from California I came up here every since

[53:56] so ridiculously expensive that I came I did well years I

[54:04] did as St I bring in [Music]

[54:08] 44,400 with my wife and I'm permanently disabled I'm 69 years old my lifespan is

[54:15] very Li and also I should take

[54:21] b as well not drink

[54:28] and the announc I get so Security in my retirement I apply for Discount the same

[54:36] told par I made $400 too much at what point I have never had

[54:44] children my wife and I work never had a single child and at the

[54:51] am and I understand to support all children

[54:57] but there's a lot of things you cut that

[55:02] aren't schools want more security it's not stopping the

[55:06] shs what's going on with Society why are we not looking these things didn't

[55:13] happen occasionally somebody in the next town get cut the night that's it it's

[55:20] people that's allow you can't reprimand you can't

[55:25] touch them verbally or physically and now the Big C on TV is putting in

[55:31] isolation rooms what are the school supposed to do

[55:35] how do you stop where are we failing as a people if we become more and

[55:41] more technically Advanced and we're regressing back

[55:47] to I don't understand that I also don't understand why you guys can't see the

[55:54] people onit in they're going their houses where they going to live be B

[55:59] us we keep wan to grow the city I know GRE the ideology that he was going

[56:08] to gr with maximum potential Main Street we don't have

[56:15] infrastructure where's the money going to come from when they meet new

[56:18] sanitation where's the money going to come from we may need more water we

[56:23] bought $30 million this last year

[56:28] a that has been gone was years for the last 3 OD

[56:36] years people need to look at me control our expansion people want to move here

[56:43] well then we need more jails we need more police officers we don't have what

[56:49] we need right now and you saw you have about one the

[56:56] jail I remember all four rooms I would

[57:04] today when at the hospital this AR about this meeting tonight why

[57:11] published if well probably people well there was a notice mail to

[57:20] every property owner with their property tax bill as well I think someone someone

[57:25] had a yellow paper when they brought up yeah right there that was M with all

[57:30] property tax bills okay

[57:35] I

[57:38] back because buy T I have with took great job

[57:47] this

[57:50] $14,900 I have expens I don't I can't reply for because

[57:57] I $400 too much where am I supposed to turn I have

[58:02] to I can't just ask some else to I'm you guys are asking this for

[58:11] 19

[58:18] inrease in the school

[58:27] easy you keep hearing about shootings why are we not teaching

[58:33] children you can't spank a child you can't repr that's

[58:43] what I am

[58:49] very okay okay thank you very much and thank you for your time thank you sir

[58:54] okay then fin my theol

[59:01] 61% the school get 61% okay my wife work to the school

[59:05] she's a school teacher for 25 years in California our schools I'm sorry they're

[59:11] pathetic most of the kids are third grade reading level I'm talking about

[59:16] high school and there is no discipline they have what do they have coaches my

[59:22] wife has been taught self-defense

[59:27] self-defense not if but when a student abuses her or attacks

[59:33] him sorry schools are fail here

[59:40] in Mike ke

[1:00:15] so what is your market

[1:00:19] value okay so your tax increase will L what that is that's that's

[1:00:27] your home

[1:00:34] [Music]

[1:00:53] is know

[1:01:20] that's the last one go

[1:01:23] the um

[1:01:28] I'll answer some questions a couple questions on um

[1:01:35] property values going up and things I I prepared a

[1:01:38] few slides to explain that that helps da could you that

[1:01:47] slide is that I mean a lot of everyone knows home values nearly doubled the

[1:01:53] last four or five years and so everyone thinks or assumes oh my value is going

[1:01:59] way up I'm paying way more taxes where's the money going lot people ask that so

[1:02:04] if you could go to the next slide this shows the iron C so the general fund tax

[1:02:10] rate over the last 20 years so back to 2003 so every year the tax rate will

[1:02:17] change depending on if values go up or down if values go up the tax rate goes

[1:02:23] down so if you look at the start which was

[1:02:29] 2003 um the tax rate was coming down and values were going up well when 2008 hit

[1:02:37] crash happened home values went down right so that that increase you can see

[1:02:44] is right after 2008 you can see the tax rate going back up because values were

[1:02:50] going down so and then it abely

[1:02:57] oh I got some more slides so yeah so so the last few years you can

[1:03:03] see the tax rates been going down down down we're probably at record low tax

[1:03:07] rates right now because we're at record high values

[1:03:12] clarify yeah this is so if if there was a tax increase

[1:03:19] then the very last dot like say this year with the tax increase then it would

[1:03:24] be a little bit higher than what it is go to the next

[1:03:36] slide yes

[1:03:42] [Music] yes the

[1:03:48] rate oh the dollar amounts okay not the tax

[1:03:52] rate okay okay

[1:03:56] this this will explain that too so yeah the tax rate is going down so the

[1:04:00] struggle is it feels just a little bit like Voodoo but there's it's like

[1:04:04] proportional there reverse proportional things so Mrs we get there this but it

[1:04:10] is yeah okay so so this is the first of three slides so we'll say this is year

[1:04:17] one in year one we have three homes in this town so one's Valu at 100,000 one

[1:04:25] 110 ,000 and 120,000 so the total value is 330,000

[1:04:33] and this town needs $1,000 to operate okay so to figure the tax rate you take

[1:04:39] the $1,000 that they need divided by the total value in that P is 330,000 so the

[1:04:47] rate is 3% so each home you take the 100,000 on

[1:04:53] the first home Times by the tax rate3 that house is going to pay

[1:04:59] $33 next home's going to pay 333 363 because it's valued at

[1:05:07] 120,000 and that makes up the total th000 that goes to the city and now

[1:05:13] let's go to the next slide this let's go to year two in year two let's say every

[1:05:19] home went up by 5% 5% increase look at the tax rate it went down from3 to. 29

[1:05:28] so every home is still paying the same amount of

[1:05:31] taxes same ,000 this town still gets $1,000 and now let's go to year

[1:05:39] three okay this year values go up again first two homes go up by 5% the third

[1:05:47] home goes up by 10% so the tax rate dropped from. 29 to.

[1:05:54] 27 now the first two homes they're paying less money than they were the

[1:05:59] first year the first two years the third home is paying more money because it

[1:06:06] went up by 10% but the average in increase in that

[1:06:11] town was about a 7% value increase so since the first two

[1:06:18] homes went up by less than the average increase now they're paying less than

[1:06:24] they did the year before for the town's still getting the same th000 they're

[1:06:29] just getting more from this home and less from those homes okay so remember

[1:06:35] that any questions right now

[1:07:11] so that would be the assessor office they're the ones that value all the

[1:07:16] homes or businesses in the county okay so they that change in value say your

[1:07:22] home was worth 300,000 three years ago now it's worth

[1:07:27] 400,000 that varies on the market so they would change that value the

[1:07:37] sessor if we're appreciating every year um was there an error and did I overpay

[1:07:44] last year was I

[1:07:48] overvalued so I not sure what your value was but you can check that with the

[1:07:53] assessor's office you okay so I mean your value will

[1:08:16] change so so on your on your home do you I mean it's everyone can

[1:08:23] contest their value we send out a notice in July saying your value is 300,000

[1:08:29] this year if you think that's too high you can appeal it we have a we hire a

[1:08:35] third party hearing officer that will come in look at your home your evidence

[1:08:40] of why you think it's too high and then they can lower that value so that's what

[1:08:44] you would have had to

[1:08:49] do

[1:08:53] okay okay I can speak that like before I was the clerk I work in the reporter's

[1:08:57] office which works with the assessor's office the assessor's office has the

[1:09:01] responsibility to Value each property year about 55,000 Parcels I don't know

[1:09:05] how many structures when I was there was 41,000 um but there are like when you

[1:09:12] have your neighbor sell their homes those get into the MLS the values get

[1:09:16] set and then what Mass raising is different like if you a house you figure

[1:09:21] out what that house is worth right how many kitchens how many whatever and um

[1:09:25] but then in Mass prais you have tax like valuation areas so like if you live up

[1:09:31] by the C City Temple your value been way right but if you live kind of where I

[1:09:38] live it hasn't not quite in dog town but I my

[1:09:43] grandpa was born in dog town but but the but but those areas they move and so

[1:09:48] there's not enough manpower to appraise every property every year and

[1:09:53] commissioner pres is right about every five years they revalue each property

[1:09:58] but then your property resides a taxation area and so they fluctuate so

[1:10:03] that might have been part of it and then the explanation I know that they did

[1:10:05] kind of change their their approach this year they've

[1:10:11] spoken about that commission they're not here to defend themselves that's talk

[1:10:15] about principles strokes but anyway taxation

[1:10:31] so that's an interesting challenge because yeah so the answer is maybe you

[1:10:38] know no well I

[1:10:42] know you know commissioner C says something I

[1:10:48] think and that is you know you want to move here then close the door behind you

[1:10:52] and we've been seeing this gr for a long time in high school uh and so you know

[1:10:58] my parents bought their home it was 41,000 I bought my first home that was

[1:11:02] 85,000 and then I sold it to my tenant and it paid off both our houses I mean

[1:11:06] it's just silly it's like funny money at some point but but that inflation like

[1:11:11] we have to respect property rights which means they can people can come in if

[1:11:16] there's money coming from somewhere else they can build and they can build it up

[1:11:20] and we are affected by increases values yeah watch your watch your value really

[1:11:28] close when you get the notice the short answer is yes you know I mean you want

[1:11:34] to have you want to make sure that you are valued correctly and if you feel

[1:11:37] like you're not then there is that process Equalization

[1:11:45] [Music]

[1:11:49] this okay so yeah you can see how the change in value the the town is getting

[1:11:56] the same thousand but it shifts house to house so every year the tax rate will

[1:12:02] change and the amount you pay to the town is going to change depending on

[1:12:06] what your home does versus everyone else's home next

[1:12:11] slide okay so looking at properties in Iron County we have all of the homes and

[1:12:20] Commercial businesses that are assessed by the Iron County Assessor office there

[1:12:25] are also properties like utility companies the railroad mines sand and

[1:12:32] gravel BS that are assessed by the state the airlines so they also all pay

[1:12:38] property taxes what's happened over the last couple of years is their values

[1:12:44] haven't really changed or they've gone down where our home values have gone way

[1:12:49] up so it's kind of hard to see but looking at the second graph and this

[1:12:55] came directly from the state showing Iron County the blue portion is

[1:13:01] Residential Properties and the orange portion is personal properties which is

[1:13:06] assessed by the the local assessor's office so this the gray and the yellow

[1:13:11] portions at the top are what are assessed by the state so in

[1:13:17] 2014 there's a 12% and 3% between utility companies and natural resources

[1:13:24] so 15 % they were paying 15% of the total taxes in Iron County

[1:13:31] now the 2024 they're only paying 6% of the total

[1:13:36] taxes in our County so what what that's causing is a tax

[1:13:41] shift so there's not more money coming in from taxes it's just that their

[1:13:48] values aren't going up like home values so homeowners are paying more taxes and

[1:13:54] these business businesses that used to pay 12 15% of the total taxes they're

[1:14:00] only paying 6% now so we're paying a lot more they're paying a lot less and I

[1:14:06] thought yeah so the essentially assess companies like Dominion Energy

[1:14:12] mcif all these companies the state assesses we don't ass the values they

[1:14:19] do I don't know how to say this nice but they figured out that they can hire a

[1:14:23] lot of attorneys M obvious and they can try get their

[1:14:28] values down and and we have we have one attorney in the county we pay hundreds

[1:14:34] of thousands of dollars to fight these big corporations to try to keep their

[1:14:38] values where they should be but it's a Conant ble losing that because it's a

[1:14:44] tax from from like say they used to pay a lot of

[1:14:52] tax yeah so so doesn't

[1:14:58] change the cost goes up because we got make

[1:15:03] difference that's why I mean a lot of you said I'm paying three four $500 more

[1:15:08] than it was three years ago this is a lot of reason why you go to the next

[1:15:13] slide

[1:15:31] that would you come

[1:15:39] to a little out of control I'm Stephanie and I just I just wanted to remind

[1:15:44] everyone there has been this enormous shift of tax burden but as it's gone

[1:15:50] from these companies they're prob traed companies they're the ones that we have

[1:15:53] our inv so they're feeling a fiduciary

[1:15:57] responsibility to us but yet we're ALS so we have to

[1:16:02] decide what we want to do I mean it seems to me it's just it bees repeating

[1:16:09] that these are publicly traded companies that many of we have

[1:16:14] any so they are powerful they have Lobby and these attorneys that are able to

[1:16:21] sway the legisl the legisl happen nationally but these are

[1:16:27] huge billion doll companies that we are prob invested in so it's a fairly

[1:16:32] complex issue those are the bad because if

[1:16:36] you're getting dividends or if you're getting any typ of

[1:16:42] payment well

[1:16:48] in um tremendous you're all up and it's these same companies who scking into to

[1:16:55] us on the backside but it's not it's not a simple issue so I would just say well

[1:17:02] I to express this is not this this to me is a I agree with you except it's a

[1:17:08] question of equity and that's what makes me angry about this on behalf of myself

[1:17:12] and all taxpayers in the we have a smaller voice so I would encourage us to

[1:17:17] reach out to our our state legislators you know Senator

[1:17:21] Victor representative ship representative Al and let them because

[1:17:25] what what's happening is they're getting they're getting you know pressur from

[1:17:29] lobbies they are hired by being a Pacific you know Rocky Mountain Power or

[1:17:33] Sky big companies and and we don't it bothers me that we have

[1:17:40] less we've talked blue we've talked we' met with the

[1:17:48] legisl many many times on this very issue and

[1:17:55] difficult for them too because they they you know they have lobbyists that that

[1:18:00] you know take those values down it's not good for res by any but we have

[1:18:10] tried after meting ouris so so just a look right

[1:18:16] here this shows the real property which is you know homes and businesses here

[1:18:21] versus the centrally assessed the gr the yellow you go back to say just

[1:18:28] 2014 we'll go all the way back home values were at

[1:18:32] 2.4 billion and now they're at 7.5 billion utilities were at

[1:18:39] 384 billion and now they're at 418 billion so they've they've hardly gone

[1:18:44] up in value all our homes have gone way up in value causing that big act shift

[1:18:51] so you know everyone's oh the school the Count's getting more money well we're

[1:18:56] getting way more money from you but way less money from them get the same amount

[1:19:00] of money you had a question okay uh one more slide I

[1:19:07] believe this is just another graph kind of showing since

[1:19:12] 2013 uh this is the T part of the tax shift residential homes were 54% of the

[1:19:19] total taxes this is Statewide and now this was in 2022

[1:19:25] they were paying 67% of the total taxes so showing that shift a little more

[1:19:31] clearly we you go back one slide I don't know if John's head's in the way butross

[1:19:36] the bottom cross the bottom so in

[1:19:41] 2023 centrally assessed properties paid $1,670 less that year in taxes just in

[1:19:50] that one year from the previous year so that was up by by home

[1:19:57] owners yeah any questions on that I

[1:20:12] would anything else I time I I don't understand totally

[1:20:21] where there was a time where the state imposed we have the certified rate if

[1:20:25] our values go up the break goes down like the chart showed but there wasn't

[1:20:29] there was a 5year period and you can correct me if I'm wrong but it was a

[1:20:33] 5year period where the state of Utah imposed a I think it was a property tax

[1:20:37] of some kind for the was it for the school I think it's the state ass State

[1:20:43] and they they they assessed a certain rate and they did not do the centrally

[1:20:46] assist it was fixed for five years so and I think in those five years when our

[1:20:51] home values really went up the state didn't the that rate lower the rate and

[1:20:57] so that was part of the increase as well so you look at the essentially assess sh

[1:21:01] and that state you know ship that that's where a lot of I think the rates went up

[1:21:07] um you know but un so they yeah so they froze their tax rate was like froze for

[1:21:13] five years so the tax rate stayed the same but values were going way up so the

[1:21:19] tax rate should have went down so if we're paying the same rate as we did

[1:21:24] last year year but our values went way up we're going to pay way more money so

[1:21:27] the statement grow that rate for five years is a small portion of your taxes

[1:21:32] but they did a lot more money from that that ended like two years

[1:21:45] ago when we were doing the going through the issues associated with the J I

[1:21:51] really hated I'm just buing my soul now the idea more taxes to ja but I liked I

[1:21:58] I didn't like but I hated less the idea of the sales ta and the reason I did is

[1:22:06] because it everyone shares that burden it bothers me that we have more people

[1:22:11] living in our County we have people who own homes and people who don't own homes

[1:22:17] and yet we are bearing the burden as homeowners and property owners and

[1:22:22] business owners for everyone is there no way to take part of this and allow

[1:22:29] everyone to Bear the burden as opposed to just Property

[1:22:33] Owners well with the Jael funding it turned out to be a sales tax increase of

[1:22:38] .3% but I know a gentleman right now that is he he drives from Vegas he stops

[1:22:44] a Home Depot he buys two for sixes concrete Nails what Center blocks and

[1:22:49] he's building his cabin in K County and he's paying for our Jil

[1:22:54] okay yeah it's much better though so I'm just wondering is there no way for us to

[1:23:00] allow people who are buying their stuff at Home Dep to help us good point and so

[1:23:07] we do collect some sales tax there's a limit like that rate can't be increased

[1:23:13] we do receive some increase in funding for that every year that has allowed us

[1:23:19] not to do a tax increase for 20 years if with without the sales tax we would have

[1:23:25] to do a tax increase every year for last 20 years you know so that is helping but

[1:23:32] with the inflation and our cost going up so much last couple years it's been

[1:23:36] outpacing that it's been when we did the jail um

[1:23:43] public hearing it was

[1:23:47] brutal but we knew because we sat in meetings and meetings and gone through

[1:23:53] the jail and and knew that that our jail was

[1:23:57] full and and I was comfortable about letting criminals go back out and and

[1:24:04] have another crime I I I don't know who you know if others are comfortable with

[1:24:11] that but I never have been during that public hearing we had a lot of people

[1:24:17] from California say oh well they incre increase ours just a little bit each

[1:24:22] year to keep up with inflation well I know why the Commissioners have

[1:24:28] not done that over the years it's difficult it's hard that's why I didn't

[1:24:33] run again to tell you the truth when I you get as old as I am and

[1:24:40] and you get yelled at that many times for roads or whatever

[1:24:45] else it's hard so you know the Commissioners over

[1:24:52] the years maybe they were afraid that they wouldn't get

[1:24:55] reelected I you know and and that may be the case if they raise taxes I wasn't

[1:25:03] worried about that I knew we needed to jail and I know that we need to fiscally

[1:25:09] pay for what we need in our count and if and if we get yelled at

[1:25:15] that's fine but we understand because we set through meeting after meeting after

[1:25:20] meeting and understand the budget and understand the need for the

[1:25:26] gel we had the oldest gel that is operating and and it it was it was

[1:25:34] difficult when I had to re up for um py commissioner it was before we had gone

[1:25:41] through the legislature and about that sales

[1:25:44] tax so it it's it's a hard job I'll tell you

[1:25:49] that and and four years of it at my age has been

[1:25:54] has been hard so to speak exactly but I was

[1:26:00] willing to do it because I know the needs of the county and I love the

[1:26:05] county well we appreciate your service your public hearing is kind

[1:26:10] of I just just think I make one more quickly

[1:26:18] then questions so when when we as a

[1:26:25] commission as a

[1:26:29] commission a Department

[1:26:34] officials we sat down and crunched numbers down to the dollar in every

[1:26:42] Department to determine what our very basic needs were what do we need to keep

[1:26:50] flow this this isn't building in any p it's not building in

[1:26:57] a we sat down and figured out know do we do we do a 20% tax raise and we're like

[1:27:04] you know what we can get by with 19.5 but we can't get away with 19 I

[1:27:10] mean we spend hours and hours crunching the numbers to see what our

[1:27:16] responsibilities are as far as services to the

[1:27:20] community and and 19.5% is what we have to have to continue

[1:27:26] services to the community there you know we could have said hey let's do

[1:27:33] 40% we good to go that that's not Cas we're

[1:27:38] 19.5% because that's what we need to to keep our

[1:27:47] count if you sit through the budget meetings that we have we literally go

[1:27:52] line by line in the county and it's like you know what you guys came in $500

[1:27:59] under budget last year let's lower your budget $500 try to or you went over $200

[1:28:07] let's raise your budget $300 year

[1:28:17] really just can't to say more everything G up so I would never

[1:28:24] you know I would have never considered it wasn't even a thought my mind we'

[1:28:29] have to raise taxes this is I'm going into

[1:28:32] my as a commissioner until the last two years this was a foreign conversation

[1:28:39] it's not about but this year in our budget

[1:28:45] you know we've had requests we had over 30 Personnel

[1:28:51] requests from different departments have

[1:29:03] this employes seven employees across the county

[1:29:10] in really and some of say half those

[1:29:15] employees come from Enterprise

[1:29:48] I'm going to say yeah as commissioners

[1:29:55] we've been able to we've been able to raise wages we've been able to keep our

[1:29:59] wages competitive I don't know

[1:30:19] last talk about it

[1:30:27] this is up until very recently

[1:30:39] this it's more important to me not to take an increase because increase to my

[1:30:46] salary affects everybody

[1:30:54] that's my two have a couple more questions let's

[1:30:58] go right here m

[1:31:36] so remember we had saved up money but that m not much some of that money was

[1:31:41] actually money that was Federal money that was the the capital projects for

[1:31:46] that and then Citi

[1:31:51] legisl representative ship

[1:31:59] HP which allow

[1:32:10] for we have asked and asked and asked for from every different place the

[1:32:17] legisl they throw so much money for for recreation and all those fun things

[1:32:24] but we bought not1 from any of that so jails are

[1:32:29] interesting in that regard because there is money that happens

[1:32:34] tail so with the federal inmates remember they're house between

[1:32:41] conviction and sentenc and then the states generally the ones that help us

[1:32:46] with our fa

[1:32:51] like no federal

[1:33:00] [Music]

[1:33:09] but this one

[1:33:14] this okay so truth and Taxation is is is it's actually an extra requirement that

[1:33:21] wasn't there previously um when Luke talked about the levy like are there are

[1:33:26] different levies on your tax bill when you own property right and so and we are

[1:33:31] one of the the general fund and so that general fund um is a fixed amount and

[1:33:36] the only way it can go up is through that new growth that Luke explained um

[1:33:42] uh but when an entity wants to increase that Levy which is what the

[1:33:48] Commissioners are working on now then they required to go through this process

[1:33:53] it's put to a vote like that there are bonds that are put to a vote or um like

[1:33:59] last year there was a group that was going to force this on to the ballot

[1:34:02] before they we kind of change directions and that's you can refer an action of a

[1:34:08] of an elect by any action that you know a Board of Commissioners or a city

[1:34:13] council makes you can refer that to the ballot um but there are you know

[1:34:17] guidelines for that but for this in this in this instance there's no other method

[1:34:22] to get it on the ballot this is but other than the public hearing and the

[1:34:26] consideration of your elected officials this is representative there really is

[1:34:30] doesn't go

[1:34:34] that yeah is there somebody over I just pull you come and talk the

[1:34:44] microphone we don't want to either

[1:34:56] [Music]

[1:35:14] so the the restaurant tax is so when you go to a restaurant you pay an extra 1%

[1:35:20] sales tax that goes to a separate F it's not part of this general fund it's its

[1:35:26] own separate fund yeah for tourism that's mandated by

[1:35:31] the state so those that money is used for recreation or tourism type

[1:35:39] [Music] activities yes so the revenues it'll

[1:35:43] show the revenues coming in from that sales tax and then the expenses of what

[1:35:47] that money

[1:35:54] no I mean you can you can always request more information detail on that we can

[1:35:58] get you that and the television thing so if any of you go by

[1:36:15] just yeah there's like 30 or 40

[1:36:39] we have so three pie recreational area this County campgound Recreation Area so

[1:36:47] as we over the last several years we've upgraded that area we've attracted

[1:36:52] different events like the uh UT State High School

[1:36:57] Mountain Bike championships we have another Regional

[1:37:00] Mike Bas those those events have actually used over a million dollars

[1:37:06] into our

[1:37:10] economy all those things so so when we pay you know when we upgrade those

[1:37:17] facilities actually well Sumer games over a year ago we got new direct which

[1:37:48] [Music]

[1:37:51] has real quick so we're having a meeting next week with

[1:37:57] the BLM in fact I talked to one of the people at another meeting and and she

[1:38:03] said there may be funds available that the county and bl can go in together

[1:38:09] because

[1:38:13] that the BLM the BLM

[1:38:33] we're we're looking at that absolutely both those

[1:38:39] Recreation they're not count but but we understand yeah we understand the impact

[1:38:45] on our roads because

[1:39:03] they have money they have M Recreation stuff but I would

[1:39:26] [Music]

[1:39:44] let me explain what so

[1:39:48] you so something that's really been a

[1:39:52] problem in the back in theot developers go

[1:40:00] out they take a road they take a road V and they Blade

[1:40:05] the shake brush they sell lots to people and the developer run off to California

[1:40:10] with money okay and then everybody when they started using that road would

[1:40:13] complain but the road is horrible and and they say we want our road fix

[1:40:18] because it's County Road no we have to we make developers bring roads to the

[1:40:22] road us see in subdivisions they have a certain standard they they have to over

[1:40:26] excavate those RS about 3T they have to bring in like a 3in minus gravel

[1:40:34] [Music]

[1:40:59] people well you but anyway to finish my point if we

[1:41:05] took every Ro in the county and and paid it for everybody we have to Triple taxes

[1:41:10] but but we require developers to do as our standard and then we'll take them

[1:41:15] over we'll Cloud them snow and we'll maintain those rules because we get we

[1:41:19] get funds from the state for to to maintain those rules but if some devel

[1:41:23] like I'll give you an example Sunset Canyon out by qua on the other side the

[1:41:28] developer came in there and he bled on the dirt and he chips him dirt he didn't

[1:41:32] put any road base he didn't put any gravel base and those RS were horrible

[1:41:37] and finally all the residents got together out there and they put it they

[1:41:40] it cost we got a bid as a County uh and we got several bids and we hired a

[1:41:46] company to come in and fix all the roads and they they added about $20,000 to

[1:41:51] their tax bill to pay for the

[1:41:59] who was your developer who

[1:42:07] developed neighbors decid to through those roads the way they should have

[1:42:11] been the first time then then we'll take them over fix them and we'll maintain

[1:42:15] them but tell them it won't because it's not fair it's not fair to put that that

[1:42:20] burden on everybody in the county the Developers done in the first place

[1:42:24] because you paid a lower amount of money for that law because those rules

[1:42:35] wer with as way more

[1:42:42] money but that was back before now now the county has them do that because it

[1:42:48] was such a huge problem all those years ago now now when when they do their

[1:42:56] subdivision they have to bring those roads up to County standards and then

[1:43:03] [Music]

[1:43:13] [Music]

[1:43:18] we there's a

[1:43:25] yes so they have a meeting

[1:43:39] every they're making improvements they making improvements and it's very

[1:43:51] expensive well the roads that you come in on that the big road that comes in

[1:43:57] front of town yeah no the next one right in front

[1:44:03] yeah they they we chip sell that the county chip sell that um and a few years

[1:44:11] ago when they put some improvements in there and so all of the roads that you

[1:44:16] come out on our County Roads that have

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[1:44:32] the county gives you a lot of services I mean ITA feel like it because your road

[1:44:38] is very good but we we help pay for when you come in and use the swimming pool in

[1:44:45] here or the your kids play baseball in here

[1:44:51] the parks if you come in

[1:44:55] the library we pay for the library

[1:45:40] we have law

[1:45:44] enforcement that's our biggest bud

[1:46:08] wednes no no it's actually going out west no it's actually

[1:46:14] we're going to meet with the BLM over another issue and we are going to talk

[1:46:18] to them about that but but I talked to another uh

[1:46:23] one of the BLM employees the other day and and she said she was

[1:46:30] looking if if they had money a pot somewhere else that they

[1:46:35] could use for that

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[1:47:08] I

[1:47:47] just want to say thank appreciate that

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[1:48:09] that employe

[1:48:13] I cut this cut that for ways to save money and that you

[1:48:21] guys are doing a great job you guys are brugal you guys conservative that was a

[1:48:26] joke but you guys you have integrity to I don't hear a

[1:48:44] comments years

[1:49:02] from

[1:49:09] stought impr there I paid most improvs the rest of the taxers have to

[1:49:14] pay some El

[1:49:18] approved District

[1:49:23] those homeowners those houses taxes they pay Now cover those

[1:49:36] cost great

[1:49:45] job we appreciate everybody come out take these

[1:49:52] as we've met over the last year talking about different

[1:49:57] issues uh we really have taken a lot of uh a lot of the

[1:50:04] suggestions that we've gotten from you guys we really do appreciate your your

[1:50:09] participation know that it's not

[1:50:13] convenient thank you for coming out tonight um if there are more individual

[1:50:19] questions and stuff that come up um

[1:50:26] no honestly the clerk's office is kind of Clearing House for that but but those

[1:50:34] concerns those questions and stuff that come in the cl's office are disseminated

[1:50:37] us we'll help and we'll help answer those

[1:50:41] questions

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[1:50:53] yes

[1:51:01] ma' I know there used to be hot tties in my

[1:51:06] childhood I think tonight's a good might be

[1:51:11] good thank you very much for coming out appreciate you just want to announce

[1:51:16] that it's not going to be voted on

[1:51:21] tonight so again um the vote on this will be November 25th 10 A.M

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[1:52:01] and another thing these meetings are required to be in the evening after 6 o'

[1:52:06] 6 o'cl or later so that's state law we have to do it in the evening um dur and

[1:52:12] it can't be during any other public meetings so like pan has meetings on

[1:52:16] Thursday sear I think Wednesday en has Tuesdays so we can do this meeting

[1:52:23] during those meetings and it has to be in the evening so I mean Fridays and

[1:52:28] Monday nights this is kind of our only

Copy of Iron County Commission Meeting November 8, 2024

Transcript