Resident Alex Washburn, one of 13 residents sponsoring the referendum, said it was filed and is in the review stage. If approved, they will need to gather signatures from at least 8.25% of Eagle Mountain residents for the measure to reach the November ballot. 

However, since the referendum was filed, Washburn said Mayor Jared Gray and City Council members reached out to discuss a compromise and that the council could vote on a change at next Tuesday’s meeting. 

According to Washburn, the proposal is to reduce the increase to between 99% to 106%. An agenda for the meeting has yet to be published, and an Eagle Mountain spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the referendum by the print deadline. 

The increase approved last week would raise the annual property tax rate for a median household by around $255 a year and generate  approximately $5.5 million of additional revenue.

City leaders said the raise would go entirely to fund public safety. Council members acknowledged at last week’s meeting that the increase would free up sales tax money to be used for other areas of the city budget.  

“This communication that 100% of the tax increase goes to public safety is true. … What that now does is it takes the sales tax that we were essentially robbing from sales tax to support public safety to do other things, (such as) several different hires within the city and wage increases for employees,” Councilman Craig Whiting said.

Washburn said his biggest frustration was a lack of transparency around the raise, and that the city did not specify where all the money would go. 

“In moving all that money to the sheriff’s contract, they were freeing up (millions) of general fund capacity, and so we all were asking, ‘Show us line by line what that’s going to,’ and they said that they weren’t able to do that,” he said. 

He added that he would be open to a compromise, and that he believes the city has “a legitimate need” for some tax increase. He said city leaders told the coalition this week that the funds would go to hire 22 new positions and raise wages.

“So for me at least, having that transparency of saying we can see where this money is going and we see that it’s about a need definitely makes me more willing to at least listen to that,” he said.

During last week’s meeting, residents expressed concern over a potential tax increase while the cost of living continues to rise.

“If we as citizens are tightening our belts and we’re deciding what we have to cut out of our lives, so must the city,” resident Duncan Searcy said.

“The added proposed tax adds to that burden and makes life more difficult than it already is for the vast majority of all these young families,” added Dave Bresnahan.

Washburn said he could afford the property tax increase but said it is a big deal for many citizens.

“I was talking to somebody who has a severely disabled daughter, and they’re already struggling to make ends meet. So then to give them that extra cost every month on this house, that’s going to be difficult for them,” he said. “So there’s definitely people like that or older people that are on fixed incomes, where any increase is going to be difficult for them. So I definitely want to have those people in mind also as we talk to the mayor.”