Unified Fire Service Area board members voted in a public meeting in December to approve a proposed tax increase for 2025. The 23% tax increase would yield $11,473,218 in revenue, according to officials. 

The increase will be implemented in two parts, with the first part of the increase – referred to as the second phase of the 2024 increase – costing an estimated $5,088,123, according to the Unified Fire Service Area. 

The second part of the proposed increase would address additional staffing in Kearns and Eagle Mountain, and is estimated to cost $6,385,095, according to UFSA. 

“Most of the increase we’re talking about here is going to the firefighters,” Board member and Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini said at the meeting. “If we don’t pay competitive wages, they’ll go somewhere else and we’ll be even more short-staffed than we already are.” 

With the 2025 tax increase being approved, the annual tax would increase from $405.35 to $498.58 for residential properties, and from $737.00 to $906.50 for commercial properties. Before 2024, the last UFSA tax increases were in 2008 and 2018. 

The 2025 tax increase would make a monthly difference of $7.77 (for an annual difference of $93.23) and a monthly difference of $14.13 for commercial properties (or an annual difference of $169.51), according to the UFSA. 

Many board members acknowledged that their own families would feel the effects of the increase, but they said property taxes are the only revenue for the UFSA. 

“This is not an organization that is abusing the system,” Board member Kathleen Bailey of Copperton told residents after the public comment period. “This is not being done frivolously.”

The proposed tax increase would be used to address the cost of service, upgrade fire stations, add staff members and maintain a minimum fund balance, UFSA said. 

The UFSA serves 12 jurisdictions: Alta, Brighton, Eagle Mountain, Emigration Canyon, Kearns, Magna, Millcreek, Taylorsville, White City and unincorporated Salt Lake County. 

“UFSA’s primary source of income is property taxes which are collected from property owners located within UFSA boundaries,” UFSA explained. 

UFSA is a “taxing entity that uses collected taxes to go directly toward fire service costs,” according to the Unified Fire Service Area. UFSA said it uses property taxes to pay its member fee to Unified Fire Authority, and that fee “is what pays for the actual service that UFSA residents benefit from.” 

The taxes are also used to purchase and maintain property within UFSA boundaries (for example, building and maintaining fire stations). UFSA said taxes are also used to pay for administrative costs. 

Full financial statements and annual budgets are available on the UFSA website. The tentative budget for 2025 is also available online. λ