'Not a choice we made lightly': Salt Lake City seeks 12.5% property tax increase
by Carter Williams ksl · KSL.comEstimated read time: 4-5 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Salt Lake City proposes a 12.5% property tax increase to cover rising costs.
- Mayor Mendenhall emphasizes the necessity due to inflation and reduced federal funding.
- Public hearings are scheduled for May 19 and June 2, before budget is finalized in June.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's capital city isn't immune to rising costs that have plagued residents since 2020.
The cost of replacing traffic signals has doubled in six years, while other vital things like the price of materials to fill potholes have increased by 45% and the cost of firefighter gear has jumped by 23% during the same time, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall noted, addressing the City Council on Tuesday.
She proposed a 12.5% property tax increase to meet the rising costs, while also handling cuts from federal and state sources, in a $498.8 million general fund budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which begins in July.
The tax would come from 28.4% of a city residents' property tax, which translates to about a $9.87 per month increase for a home valued at $624,000. It's expected to generate $13.5 million toward the next budget.
"We did not arrive at this proposal quickly or casually," she said. "We exhausted every other option before proposing increases to property taxes and fees. ... It was not a choice we made lightly."
The city is also planning to increase public utility, waste and recycling costs, which were already scheduled to help repay its new water treatment plant and other aging infrastructure. Those, combined, are on track to increase by $32.35 per month.
City leaders warned last year that a property tax increase was on the horizon as they watched discussions of cuts to federal funding as the current budget was being proposed, while inflation increased. Those ultimately factored into a "tight" state budget.
Salt Lake County ended up increasing its countywide budget by 14% for its latest budget, too, which was finalized before January, but most of the increase is expected to help fund public safety concerns and growing inflation.
The impact of the cuts is now beginning to hit many cities across the state. Utah leaders proposed a few bills during the 2026 legislative session that sought to cap municipalities from raising property taxes, among other reforms, but the Utah League of Cities and Towns and its members rallied to defeat them, Angela Price, the city's legislative affairs director, said in March.
Mendenhall called her budget proposal "fiscally responsible," given the situation, representing an approximate 1.6% increase from the previous budget. Last year's budget was a 7% increase from the year before that. The city, she said, trimmed $13.2 million in spending through various efficiencies, such as an informal hiring freeze, where some open jobs were ultimately not refilled and the city made adjustments to police overtime.
The mayor ultimately determined that a tax increase was a better option than "mass layoffs," cutting services and delaying infrastructure that the city will "need for the next 20 years."
She also mulled over various options to raise the $13.5 million, including a small new tax on event tickets and a new transportation utility fee for infrastructure. But those options "will require more time to thoroughly develop" because of their complexity in implementation in time for this year, she said.
Of the average $9.87 collected per household every month, $4.73 will go toward capital improvement projects for infrastructure, accounting for most of the increase. Fire response and prevention and the city's criminal justice system would receive most of the rest, but funding for items like the city's Youth & Family Services' YouthCity Program would be included.
"This is a year of constraints, but it is not a retreat from our responsibilities," Mendenhall said. "This is a year of rising costs, but it's not one of lowering standards. This is a year when hard decisions now can help us avoid harder choices later."
It's up to the Salt Lake City Council to approve any adjustments. It plans to hold a pair of public comments on the budget and tax increase during its May 19 and June 2 meetings (7 p.m. at the Salt Lake City-County Building, 451 S. State). A required truth-in-taxation hearing is slated for Aug. 11, before any increase goes into effect.
Fee increases
Mendenhall spoke hours after Laura Briefer, director of Salt Lake City Public Utilities, unveiled the department's proposed budget earlier in the day, which includes fee increases.
The department faces over $60 million in debt services on the docket this year to remain in good standing on bonds used for major infrastructure projects. Briefer estimates that her department has saved $434 million on different efficiencies that have helped reduce costs, easing some of the project service fee increases.
The service increases come after a significant shift in federal help, Briefer said. Federal funds historically made up 50% to 60% of project costs in Utah for decades. It's dropped down to about 3%.
Not increasing rates to make up the cost could jeopardize the city's bond rating, leading to higher interest rates for all city projects down the road, she explained.
Council members understood the struggle, noting that project needs were years and decades in the making, and the timing is rough as household costs rise.
However, they also asked the department to better clarify the fee increases to residents who will see them on their bills amid other rising costs.
"If we can't provide stability and no increases to our neighbors, the next best thing is we can provide anticipatory guidance so they can prepare to absorb them," said Salt Lake City Councilwoman Victoria Petro.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Carter Williams
Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.