The Spanish Fork City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to raise the property tax rate in the city to 0.0012 during a Truth in Taxation meeting in order to fund an incoming fire station and library.

The owner of a $314,000 home in Spanish Fork will see the annual property tax bill increase from $163.37 in 2019 to $207.24, an increase of $43.87, or 26.9%, according to Kent Clark, Spanish Fork’s finance director.

Spanish Fork gets about 11% of the total property taxes paid by residents, while three-quarters goes to Nebo School District, 9% goes Utah County and the rest goes to the Central Utah Water Conservancy District and state and local assessing fees, according to a presentation by Clark.

“So the property tax increase that we are talking about is just this section of the pie,” Clark said, pointing to an orange sliver on a graphic explaining the breakdown of Spanish Fork property taxes.

Clark noted that Spanish Fork’s property tax rate has decreased for years, dropping from 0.001221 in 2013 to 0.000991 in 2018, giving the city the lowest property tax rate in Utah County.

“If your (property) value goes up, in order to get those same (property tax) dollars, it forces mathematically the rate to go down,” the finance director said. “And so that’s what causes each one of these rate decreases, is, as the value of the home goes up, it forces the rate to go down.”

With the increase, Spanish Fork’s property tax rate will be slightly higher than those of Highland, Payson, Lindon and Orem. Woodland Hills currently has the highest tax rate in the county, 0.004345, followed by Eagle Mountain, Provo, Mapleton and American Fork.

Clark told the city council that the increase would go toward financing the incoming fire station and library building, noting that the rate was strategized and set “in order to capture some property tax revenue to have the extended service in the fire department and extended service in the library.”

Raising the property tax rate will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for both the library and fire station.

Library Director Scott Aylett said the existing 12,000 square-foot library lacks space for books and storage and is insufficiently sized to service a city with a population of more than 40,000.

“In terms of space, our physical collection is pretty much maxed out,” said Aylett. “Now it fluctuates a little bit up and down, but we just don’t have the space to expand our physical collection.”

Aylett added that increasing library services would benefit the community by providing “a place where we hope to foster literacy, education, entertainment, development and discovery among all age groups and demographics in the community.”

“It really is an area and a place for us to help connect our residents with one another,” Aylett said.

Councilman Keir Scoubes said he supported the property tax increase and that “a lot of care and effort has gone into this.”

“But (I) do agree, timing-wise … it is a very difficult and trying time for all of us that have either fixed incomes or incomes we’re not sure of or what have you,” Scoubes said.

Also during Tuesday’s Truth in Taxation meeting, the Spanish Fork City Council voted unanimously to adjust the city’s 2020 fiscal year budget to account for the approved property tax increase.