The Riverton City Council unanimously approved its upcoming budget in June without controversy as no property tax increase was proposed. 

While there is no tax increase, city officials are tightening the city coffers a little bit. Over the last 10 years the city’s sales tax revenue has increased over 230% allowing the city in recent years to avoid raising property taxes on its residents. The city’s revenue growth, spurred by developments like Mountain View Village, has started to slow down. 

City Manager Kevin Hicks explained to the council during budget discussions they were averaging almost 10% increase in sales tax year over year. Historically, he said, they looked at trends and what economists were predicting such as during the pandemic. “They were predicting doom and gloom for sales tax and we had banner years,” he said. Those revenues saw extra growth during the pandemic as residents worked on home projects and online shopping. 

“We don’t have big car lots or tourism dollars coming in,” he told the council, adding those banner years gave the city’s sales tax a large boost. 

Plus, Councilmember Troy McDougal added, they were “blessed” with extra funds and grants during Covid such as the ARPA federal funding. Those helped fill gaps from the past, he said.

Looking at trends now Hicks said the sales tax “is not going down, it’s just slowing” pushing them to take a “much more conservative approach this year” as they anticipate closer to a 2% increase rather than 10%.  

McDougal said their “big growers” like Costco and Mountain View Village landed well giving the city those revenue boosts, but going forward will have a more realistic sales tax.

“I commend the council, we have done a great job…aggressively used funds to get our debt paid down,” he said. “We have to start living within our income a little more. I don’t see much areas to have a huge explosion in sales tax again within our city boundaries. We’re fine, just something to consider moving forward.” 

A couple items were added to the budget after council discussion in May: youth council scholarships, renewing the city’s membership with the Utah League of Cities and Towns and funding for a bocce ball court. 

Councilmember Andy Pierucci proposed using $25,000 from the capital improvement fund to build a bocce ball court, a sport where each team or player earns points by throwing small balls close to the pallino, or the white, smaller target ball.

Pierucci first saw it at the Special Olympics Bocce Ball tournament held at Oquirrh Hills Middle School in April. 

“It seemed like a really cool experience for the kids and it was eye opening how accessible it was for so many people,” he said. The estimates he received for concrete barriers, court, trees, benches and path were just shy of $25K. 

The rest of the council was supportive except for McDougal who was concerned about adding it into the budget so late in the process and that money could complete other unfinished projects. 

“I prefer to hold off until we have more information on our overall park structure and our ability to finance them long term,” he said. 

Pierucci agreed, but felt they needed to remain flexible, since bocce ball wasn’t on their radar until late April, when opportunities can still fit within their strategic plan goals like improving the amenities of Riverton parks.

The council did approve a fee increase for sanitation in an effort to make the fund more self-sustaining increasing the monthly household amount from $10 to $13 and an extra recycling tote fee be increased from $4 to $5. 

Mayor Trent Staggs noted the significance of no tax increase while other cities have done so both last year and this year. Taylorsville, South Salt Lake and Murray will all see slight increases proposed this year and have public hearings in August. 

The three upcoming projects he highlighted in his June Mayor’s Message were: 

Culinary water – The Green Well, a reverse osmosis plant, will provide half the city with water equal to or great than the quality of water from Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, according to Staggs. He wrote this would save taxpayers $1 million in water purchases and keep culinary water rates low for the foreseeable future. 

Secondary water – this project will complete the secondary water meters on all residential properties within city boundaries which should enhance and improve filtration and pressurization, the mayor said. He added this was a priority they heard from residents. 

Welby Canal Trail and Bridge – Another priority identified by residents. The bridge will cross 13400 South at approximately 4200 West.  λ