Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson confirmed Monday that Pleasant Grove residents gathered more than enough signatures to bring the tax issue to a vote, collecting 350 beyond what they needed.

The referendum will be listed on resident’s ballots as Proposition No. 14. The language of the proposition will ask voters if the city shall be “authorized to levy a tax increase” that will amount to about 14.8%, or $4.72 per month on the average-value home, leading to increased city revenue of $733,171 for the fiscal year.

On the ballot, it also says the revenue will be used for a new park, increased police wages, a new full-time firefighter and a library program coordinator.

John St. Clair, who began the signature-gathering effort, said he’s excited to have achieved getting the property tax increase put up for a citizen vote.

“Now the citizens of Pleasant Grove will have a chance to have a voice and a choice and a vote on it,” he said.

Scott Darrington, the city manager, said if voters choose to vote against the tax increase, the city will need to take away from other services in order to fund things like the Cook Family Park and increased police wages.

“We’d have to do an evaluation of some of our services that we currently provide and pull money from other services in order to make the payments,” he said. Public safety and roads are areas that could have funding pulled from them, he said, but the city hasn’t worked out specifics yet.

“We’re hopeful that our residents are going to look at the ballot question and say, ‘Hey, I’m OK with this. I feel like we’re getting good value for the tax increase.'”

St. Clair said the next steps are to continue to educate people on the issue because he believes there wasn’t enough transparency for residents before the council initially passed the tax increase.

“We think the city needs to prioritize their spending better and really determine needs versus wants, and everything can’t be a need,” he said.

According to Darrington, the city cannot use taxpayer dollars to advocate voting for or against the proposition, but they are allowed to educate residents on the issue.

Darrington said the city may continue to share the information packet that was distributed during signature gathering, which includes arguments for and against the tax increase and other information about the proposition.

St. Clair said he feels there’s a lot of support among residents for overturning the tax increase, based on his conversations with people as he gathered signatures.

“(Residents) are tired of the tax increases,” he said. “We heard from many families who were on fixed incomes, who have said enough is enough.”

Pleasant Grove also raised its property taxes in 2022 by about 20%, adding up to about an additional $54 a year for the average home. Between this year and the previous year, that amounts to about a $110 increase.

Before 2022, the city hadn’t raised property taxes in 35 years, Darrington told the Daily Herald in September.