ST. GEORGE — Support for the adoption of a proposed property tax increase in St. George for public safety funding fell flat Thursday evening. After a majority of residents who attended the night’s truth in taxation meeting voiced opposition to the tax hike, four members of the St. George City Council voted down the tax increase for various reasons.
“This is very a bad time,” Councilman Gregg McArthur said as he referred to the current period of inflation, fears of a pending recession and the recent shock Washington County property owners had over increasing property tax rates this year.
Some residents have seen their property taxes jump as much as 30% due to factors unrelated to the tax hike proposed by St. George. Property tax values have spiked significantly in the county while rates related to the state school fund and multi-county accessing and collecting were previously frozen by the Legislature.
These – plus a general distaste for the concept of raising taxes expressed by many residents during the meeting – were among the factors working against the proposed funding for the city’s Safe St. George Plan.
Safe St. George is a five-year plan outlining the city’s projected public safety needs and initially was introduced to the public in detail during a June council meeting as a part of the city’s proposed $502 million 2023 city budget.
The five-year plan is estimated to run nearly $90 million and will fund public safety infrastructure and staffing needs. While the majority of the funding comes through existing sources like impact fees, capital project funds and grants, 23% of the funding – around $23 million – was proposed to come through a property tax increase.
City officials told the meeting attendees that the proposed tax increase equated to an estimated $5 per month, or $60 a year increase for homes with an average market value of $556,000.
The increase in funding is considered vital as it will allow the city’s police and fire departments to keep pace with the area’s overall growth while also providing competitive wages and benefits for public safety personnel.
Both off-duty St. George Police officers as well as the wives of other officers told the City Council a bump in pay and personnel is desperately needed as the current force is underpaid and overtaxed when it comes to the public safety needs of the city.
“We want to fund the police until its not time to fund the police, which is pretty ironic,” St. George Police Officer Jeremy Needles, a 17-year veteran of the police force, told the council. “It’s a hard thing. Please look at the bigger picture instead of the short term.”
Resident Sydni Makemo spoke after Needles and said she didn’t want to see more officers on the streets as it stands in opposition to her own push for police reforms as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, yet she supported the proposed tax hike.
“If (Police) Chief (Kyle) Whitehead says to me that we need more officers on the street, I’m going to hear him out and listen to him,” she said, adding that she trusted Whitehead as she felt he had won the trust of the community and had shown her through his actions that he cares about civil rights. “If he says they’re being burned out, I’m going to believe him.”
Makemo also applauded the proposed plan’s pay raises for public safety personnel because if the city has to have more officers, they “had better be the best” and “not the bottom of the barrel.”
The city collects 12% of the overall property tax St. George residents pay. The majority – 70% – goes to the Washington County School District. The remainder is collected by Washington County and the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
The city’s property tax rate has remained the same since 1987.
A reason the city proposed an increase in the property tax is because it is considered a stable, long-term source of funding year-to-year while other options are considered less stable or may only be used for one-time funding due to state law.
While members of the St. George Police and Fire departments spoke in favor of the tax increase in hopes of drawing in and retaining additional staff to help cover the city, their voices were in the minority.
“Don’t use public safety as an excuse to overtax constituents,” one man told the council while another accused city officials of using the city’s police officers and firefighters as pawns in a bid to raise taxes.
Other objections came from senior citizens who said they lived on fixed incomes and that the tax increase could stretch already stressed finances beyond their ability to keep up.
Multiple references to increasing inflation and recession were also made, as were the occasional accusations that the city was mismanaging its budget if the city couldn’t afford to fund public safety without the tax hike.
Suggestions were made to cut funding to different parts of the city with parks and recreation being a prime target. Others told the City Council to cut salaries to staff they felt were overpaid, like City Manager Adam Lenhard.
“Everyone wants the best, but they don’t want to pay for the best,” City Councilman Jimmie Hughes said, noting that while those in the meeting wanted to make sure public safety was a top priority, they didn’t seem to support the same when came to other city departments.
St. George is the way is it because it strives to employ the best people for the job, whatever that job may be, he added.
While many voiced opposition to the tax increase, no negative comments were made against those in public safety, which Hughes also noted.
“No one here is saying, ‘Defund the police,’” he said. “That’s great.”
Councilwoman Michelle Tanner, who repeatedly stated her own support for public safety, said funding the Safe St. George plan should be a priority over other parts of the city. She then outlined various projects the city had budgeted for the coming year that she felt would be cut in favor of public safety funding.
“I support public safety first and foremost,” she said. “I’m in favor of funding the things that have been laid out in the five-year plan. … I am 100% for giving public safety the raises and the increase in personnel – but we’re going to find it somewhere else in this budget and not through a tax increase.”
Ultimately, that is the course the City Council chose to take.
After some deliberation and a failed motion to approve the tax increase made by Councilwoman Danielle Larkin, the council voted down the proposed tax increase in a 4-1 vote. Larkin was the dissenting vote.
This doesn’t mean the Safe St. George plan is dead. Rather, the City Council has pledged to fund it – yet exactly how remains to be seen. The City Council has until Sept. 1 to figure it out. Under state law, the city must adopt a balanced budget by that date.
The adoption of the 2023 budget has been on hold as the adoption of the tax hike originally was expected to be a part of it. Due to its removal, parts of the budget need to be reworked in order to balance it out and also provide a way to fund the first year of the Safe St. George plan.
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