The Utah County Commission voted Wednesday to set a time and date for a public hearing in August on a potential tax increase for 2025. All three commission members voted in approval of a resolution to hold a truth-in-taxation hearing in August.

The proposal is for a tax increase of about 48% or $91.54 a year on the average home of $532,000.

This year, the county’s budget is in a $10 million deficit, which officials have attributed to inflation and tax revenues being behind the historical average.

Rod Mann, the county auditor, said the county needs to add about $25 million to the budget to keep up with current costs, with the proposed increase estimated to bring in that amount.

The increased tax revenue is needed for public safety and criminal justice departments, like the sheriff’s office or public defenders, Mann said.

“I’m very confident that … there will be opposition to a tax increase, there always is,” he said. “But also, I’m very confident that when you walk (them) through it, people will be understanding.”

Earlier in the meeting, the commission approved adjustments to the county’s contract with the Utah Public Defender Association, which included increasing funds for more attorneys and a social worker.

Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner said the proposal looked “reasonable” and thanked county employees for their work on the matter.

“I appreciate the work that went into this in the last seven days to come back with a number that I feel fully encompasses all of the challenges that we’re facing moving forward, particularly with the expiration of ARPA (the federal American Rescue Plan Act) funds and the growth of the county,” she said Wednesday.

Mann said he is working with the county’s information technology department to create a page on the county website specifically to provide information on the tax increase proposal, including a calculator residents can use to estimate how their taxes might rise.

Any vote on actually approving a tax increase wouldn’t happen until later in the year when the county votes on its 2025 budget.

The last tax increase in the county was in 2019, when the commission voted on a 67% property tax increase. That increase was cut in 2021 by about 25% when commissioners moved to scale back the hike, according to KSL.

The public hearing will be held at the Utah County Administration Building in Provo at 6 p.m. Aug. 15.