Highland City Council Preview for 3 August 2021

Below is the most recent “2-Minute Tuesday” video from Utah’s Highlander summarizing the July 20th council meeting. The Lions, Tigers, and Bears theme is appropriate.

There are several interesting agenda items including:

• Approval of an additional office building on Sunset Drive and Highland Blvd
• Resolution to put a RAP tax on the ballot this fall.
• Discussion of how ARPA funds may be used.
• Discussion on garbage cans and doggie bags in city parks.

2019-2020 Highland Property Taxes & Fees Compared to Other N. Utah County Cities

Surprising 10-Year Highland City Budget Review

Since the city is asking for a revenue increase to fund a significant jump in public safety spending I thought it would be good to share a historical overview of the city’s general fund revenue and expenses. When I included population growth and factored in inflation I was surprised at what I found.

Highland City: 2018 in Review

2018 was a busy year for staff and elected officials. We made a lot of progress in multiple areas. I’ve reviewed what transpired and highlighted those items that I believe were the most impactful and/or newsworthy. I’ve organized these by general categories. The last is “Highland in the News”. We received a lot of good coverage this year from local media and were even mentioned in a USA Today article.

Communication:

• Staff implemented a short report called the “City Council Brief.” These are published and shared on the city website and Facebook page within a few days of any council meeting. The brief contains a short descriptions of actions taken by the council and includes a link to a spreadsheet that shows all votes cast by each member of council since Jan 2018.

Notes from the Mayor: Tax Base, Tax Rates, …

As I have worked through the 2018 city survey I’ve seen a number of comments related to our prop tax and tax base compared to other cities. I’ve done some research in that regard and want to share it with you. There some limitations when comparing cities as they all have their individual idiosyncrasies  For example, we have a $18.50 road fee which we track outside of the General Fund, Cedar Hills has a $6 EMS fee, Pleasant Grove has a $8.45 road fee … . I did not reach out to the individual cities to get their current household count but used US Census Data for all cities which is several years out of date. Also, the revenue and expense data is taken from each city’s 2018-19 budget, which are subject to change as the year progresses. So while the information is interesting it is certainly not perfect. What is does show is that Highland does have a per household sales tax base that compares favorably with our neighbors (except for AF which is significantly higher than everyone else), our property tax rate is the second lowest and our general fund spending per household is in the middle (just below average).