Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District votes to increase property tax

WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) — The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District Board voted Monday evening to raise property taxes in the zone by 11%.

This will add more than $12 a year for the average homeowner and $21 more a year for businesses. Alan Packard, general manager of the Water Conservancy District, said this is part of a long-term financial plan to support growing population needs.

 “The benefit of it is having a strong financial ability for Jordan valley because were growing and building new facilities for future generations ..its important we have good credit rating and having some of our revenue come from a reliable source like property taxes helps that credit rating and lowers our interest cost we pay when we issue bonds,” Packard said. 

He said this tax increase will help them over the next five years. They have over $200 million in capital project needs. 

“Like expanding out water treatment plant and building major new aqueducts and that’s triggering a need for us to borrow more money and when we borrow more money we need to shoe strength and have a certain amount of a revenue that’s from a predictable source like property taxes to get that Fianacial strong credit rating to borrow at the lowest possible interest rates possible,” Packard said. 

The increase would affect over 800,000 people in the Salt Lake County area. 

“We will have to manage a loss of revenue of $3.1 million not only this year but each year into the future because that’s how much revenue will be generated annually and going forward,” Packard said. 

Not everyone is on board. 

“Every time were defeated by the lobbyist at the Jordan valley water district who are paid for with theses taxes and that has to stop and these taxes need to go away we need to pay for our water supply like the majority water suppliers inside the United States do which is in water rates,” Zach Frankle, with the Utah Rivers Council said. 

Frankle is frustrated with their approach and said there is already a huge Salt Lake water crisis. 

“The reason Utahns should be concerned about these property taxes is because they effectively lower the price of water for large land owners for the wealthy and for tax exempt institutions like schools, churches, and universities that don’t pay any property taxes and are therefore paying less than they should for using vast quantities of water,” Frankle said. 

Now that the property tax increase has been approved, Packard said the increase will take effect starting in November.