Civil Municipal Magazine - Nov 2023

69 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11 HOLLADAY, UTAH He recounts, “We had not imposed a property tax increase in Holladay since its incorporation in 1999. The piece of the pie that kept shrinking was that public works pieces every year in the budget, like police and fire, all had an inflationary component that had to be absorbed. So, every year, the amount we had to invest in our infrastructure kept shrinking to the point where it was almost zero.” To address the issue, the city embarked on a two-year education process to explain to residents the need for a property tax increase and the imposition of a storm drain fee to ensure the long-term health of its infrastructure. The efforts were successful, with little public resistance, and a 50% property tax increase and a storm drain fee were implemented. The city also issued bonds to secure funding, investing approximately $8 million in roads over the last two years. “Our city engineer was saying that we have touched about 17% of our road infrastructure in terms of crack seals and overlays, and that sort of thing,” Dahle reports. “Now, that’s going to be ongoing, and we’ve also got additional revenue each year through that property tax to make sure we can invest to keep