Utah County will be operating in a “deficit-spending scenario,” said Commission Chair Amelia Powers Gardner and will be supplementing through the county’s fund balance, which she described as a “rainy day fund.”

High inflation and a slowing economy are the main stressors, Powers Gardner said, with a reduction in sales tax revenue.

According to a tentative 2024 budget presentation during the Oct. 24 County Commission meeting, sales tax growth is down 2.5% and property tax growth is down 3%.

No tax increases are being proposed for 2024, with the county looking at making spending cuts to alleviate the deficit in the budget. Powers Gardner said the county has enough in its fund balance to handle a “down year.”

“We’ve worked hard throughout the years to keep our government lean and to have a savings account so that when things like this happen, we have time to see if the economy turns around,” she said.

One example Powers Gardner gave was finding a way to reduce the county health department’s funding request by $2.5 million. To do this, the health department increased some fees to raise revenue and reduced the number of additional personnel included in its original funding request.

“So our initial approach to this deficit spending is to cut where we can,” Powers Gardner said, adding that various departments will likely be cutting a staffing position or two. “Everyone is tightening their belt,” she said.

Utah County last raised its property taxes in 2019, increasing the rate by 67.4%, which added $19.3 million to the 2020 budget.

A handful of taxing entities in Utah County have seen property tax increases this year, such as Santaquin and Alpine School District. Recently, citizens in Pleasant Grove voted to shut down a property tax increase that was approved by the City Council earlier in the year.

According to Powers Gardner, the 2024 budget won’t include any “drastic” changes. But it will contain standard wage increases, especially as Utah has a competitive job market and it is important to retain employees, she said.

“Wages are continuing to go up in the private sector, which means that we lose employees if we don’t if we don’t stay on par,” she said.

There will still be some new personnel positions within the county, the commissioner said, but most due to changes in state law that the county will have to comply with. One example is the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, which will be adding a school safety officer to work with schools to ensure they are compliant with new school safety laws.

The Utah County Public Defenders Association recently asked the county during a public meeting for funding to hire several more attorneys to meet new national workload standards, but Powers Gardner said that would not be happening under this budget.

“We don’t look at national standards when it comes to workload because we (the county) do so much more with less,” she said.

A public hearing on the upcoming year’s budget will be held Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. in the Utah County Administration Building in Provo. Residents can also watch the meeting live on the county’s YouTube account or participate via Zoom.