Tuesday evening’s city council meeting, the first of the year, was a busy one.
It began with a work session held at 6pm. Two local state representatives, Melissa Ballard and Raymond Ward, presented to the council what they will be focusing on personally and in their affiliated groups during Utah’s legislative session, which begins on Jan. 20. Each had a lengthy and detailed list.
Rep. Ballard, who represents District 20 (the south end of Bountiful, Woods Cross, North Salt Lake), said that some of her top priorities would be:
- Addressing the cost of living.
- Making policy to protect families and specifically children, with an emphasis on guarding against digital predators.
- Addressing homelessness.
- Helping schools and districts in the state achieve better academic success.
- Improving and securing infrastructure, including securing minerals and reducing traffic.
- Reducing the marriage penalty tax problem (when a couple pays more in combined income tax filing as a married couple than they would if they remained single and filed individual returns).
- Reducing regulation across industries, such as the rules governing the operation of speech language pathologists.
- Increasing opportunities for incarcerated individuals to reassimilate easier.
Rep Ward, District 19 (Bountiful, West Bountiful), had his own sizable to-do list for the session.
- Focusing on setting the state budget for the year while addressing the flat economy and the impacts from the “Big Beautiful Bill,” including tax cuts and changes to how gross income is collected.
- Finding ways to balance funding requirements for education, Medicaid, and state employee raises while minimizing harm to other financial areas.
- Addressing the recent problem of balancing legislative authority with citizen initiatives, like in the debate about congressional district boundaries here in Utah.
- Addressing changes to how tax increment financing, and how that will affect local development and economies.
- Adjusting zoning rules to make it easier for cities to approve productive community projects and housing policy changes, including: Building on smaller lots, smaller homes or homes on small lots, and reducing costs without requiring large investments.
Bountiful officials brought a few concerns for the reps to the table as well.
Mayor Kate Bradshaw noted that there will be a bill introduced related to e-motorcycles and e-bikes, a problem the city has been dealing with as of late, and emphasized Bountiful’s position on municipal power. Bradshaw asked legislators to pay close attention to any bills affecting municipal power systems and how power is regulated statewide.
City Manager Gary Hill also expressed concern with potential changes to property tax law. While the state can create or modify several types of taxes, cities largely rely on property tax as the one tool they can adjust when faced with new costs, such as adding police officers or maintaining strong bond ratings. Hill was concerned about proposals to cap property tax increases at 5%, stating such limits would reduce the city’s ability to operate and could actually lead to more frequent tax increases as cities feel pressure to take the maximum allowed.
Hill also raised concerns about a proposal to increase the primary residence exemption from 45 percent to 60 percent, noting that because roughly 85 percent of Bountiful’s property tax revenue comes from primary residential properties, the shift would force about $1 million onto the commercial sector, creating significant challenges for the city’s tax base.
That ended the work session. Reps. Ballard and Ward stated they would do their best to keep the city’s concerns in mind, and that if there were any more issues or areas the city wanted them to look into, to contact them.
Soccer and City Council
The evening then turned to the regular session of the city council meeting. After the usual Pledge of Allegiance, invocation, approval of expenditures, and council reports, the meeting had two big moments.
First, the Bountiful High School girl’s soccer team was honored for their state championship win in October. Representatives from the team were at the meeting to accept the honor, with Mayor Bradshaw and Councilmember Dan Bell repping their Bountiful High School jackets in support.
Second, new councilmember Millie Bahr was sworn in to serve. Bahr was selected at a special session last week to fill the vacancy left by Bradshaw when she moved to mayor. Bahr has previously served a full term on the Bountiful city council and will serve for the next two years. Her family was in attendance to support her.
After the swearing in, the council turned to a few matters of city business, including zoning changes and adjustments to lcoal businesses, then adjourned.
Thank you so much for keeping us informed! I missed the work session portion. I appreciate the list of what our representatives will be working on.
It’s good to hear from the city what they need the representatives to know and keep in mind.