council, Annexation, subdivisions & budget
by kathy bence
Cactus Flower by Lori Cole
Public Forum & hearing
Both the public forum and the public hearing seemed rather lonely with no comments shared.
During the hearing portion of the council meeting, public input was sought on Toquerville City’s Annexation Policy Plan. This is required by Utah Code. It “serves as a roadmap for informed annexation decisions, promoting strategic growth, property rights protection, and collaboration with neighboring communities.”
This was drafted by Sunrise Engineering to make sure we’re compliant with the state. There is a map on the city website that shows possible annexations and zoning districts. It’s under the links section of this Toquerville Sentinel website: Toquerville Zoning Districts Viewer. There are currently no active requests for annexation to Toquerville.
Councilman Wayne Olsen suggested there’s a need to ensure that residents won’t bear the cost IF there is an annexation. On page 3 point 2 of the Toquerville City’s Annexation Policy Plan:
2. Need for Municipal Services in Developed and Undeveloped Unincorporated Areas The city favors annexation of developed and undeveloped areas where there is need for, and capacity to, install and provide municipal services or where there are plans for future development that will create the need for, and capacity to, provide required municipal services.
After a brief discussion, it was agreed the wording was ambiguous. To ensure that the city does not install and pay for infrastructure, the words “install and” were removed. With the modifications to page 3, item 2, they approved the annexation plan.
Subdivision submittal policy
Following some conversation which begins here, the council passed and adopted a policy governing subdivision submittals. This includes an optional sheet for the developers which are applying. It was mentioned in the discussion that rather than researching the codes, the Subdivision Submittal Policy is like a cheat sheet for the applicant.
Through much of this discussion, I found myself thinking about water. As Utah continues to build, can they guarantee there will be water? Michelle Peot has provided several posts on the water situation in Utah, including her just-released post helping us learn from the California wildfires. Her posts can be found by using the searing tool in the top right hand corner of the Toquerville Sentinel website and entering her name.
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget
This is an ongoing discussion about the budget which the council will have more than a month to review. As of now, the budget has been put together by the administrative side of Toquerville. The vote in a month will be modified by the city council and will still be a tentative budget.
Details and Line Items
City manager, Ben Billingsley, provided a detailed explained about how this budget arrived at where it is now. If you want important details I likely missed (or misunderstood) his comments followed by the council’s comments which begin here.
He said there are 420 line items that cross all the funds, although the document shows 601 lines due to titles and spacing. Each department head has submitted budget requests. They took a conservative approach to revenues.
General Fund
The general fund is unrestricted revenue and the fund balance is primarily related to the general Fund. He explained that every budget the city council adopts needs to contribute to the general fund, like a rainy day fund. The city should maintain 30 to 35 percent of the overall budget as a general fund. If there’s extra money beyond 35 percent it could go to the capital projects fund.
The Bypass and Westfield park are the only capital projects at this time.
He said sales tax contributes 16 percent to the general fund and property tax contributes 12 percent. Sales tax revenue will be larger as more sales tax outlets come into the city. One percent of the sales tax goes to the city. Half of the one percent goes directly to the city. The other half goes to a state pool and the state gives a percentage back.
More Revenue sources
Now that Toquerville is growing, there’s a need to consider revenue opportunities, which always puzzles me. Cities often encourage development with the promise of increased revenue. Yet when development increases and cities become larger, there’s a need for more revenue.
Along these lines, Ben explained another sales tax revenue possibility that the city could adopt: the city option tax. It could produce about $50,000 a year. In my mind there’s two sides to this city option tax coin. I was confused by some of this so I turned to Google. Among the many explanations I read:
“Local option tax is “destination-based.” In other words, the tax is collected based on the location where the buyer takes possession of the item or where it is delivered.
Local option taxes allow voters, either directly or through their representatives, to choose whether to increase taxes to pay for services that state taxpayers may be unwilling to fund.”
It was mentioned though that, theoretically, those ordering online in Toquerville could pay an additional tax—that’s us!
There’s also the possibility of a Transportation Utility Fee (TUF). A fee assesed on utilities to pay for infrastructure costs. Fortunately, none of the council members looked excited about any of these revenue possibilities.
Please monitor carefully
Councilman Gary Chaves shared that in the past there were times that the council was not aware of the amount of money in the “rainy day fund.” They were spending money when they didn’t have sufficient padding. Ben assured him that that he would carefully monitor the amount to ensure there was sufficient money. Gary said he carefully reviewed this spreadsheet and felt it was very well done. He didn’t think he would see a need to made changes.
Calendar of Events
—Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, April 12 at Center Street Park at 10:00 AM
—Arbor Day Plant a Tree/Pick up the Park Event will be Friday, April 25 at Center Street Park at 12:00 PM