Subject: 2023 City Budget Report Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2022 16:32:16 +0000 (UTC) The 2023 City Budget Report from the "Transparency Committee" is at https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:5b82cb5c-9b9b-3f7... That version has some decorative graphics that are not included in this text-only version of the report. ----- Community of Woodland Hills City Report NOTE: Opinions and information published by the Transparency Committee are not official City positions. They represent the perspective of the Transparency Committee, and of the person(s) quoted or interviewed. While we strive to publish the most accurate information possible, plans and decisions can change quickly as new information is acted upon by City officials. Accordingly, the following information is accurate as of the date of publication, but beyond that time some details may become outdated. Let's look at our 2023 budget. Where can I find the budget to review it? The budget is posted on the city web site. Here's how to access it: Use this direct link to get to the city documents page: https://www.woodlandhills-ut.gov/documents . Once there, click on Woodland Hills City Code and Ordinances and scroll down to Ord. 2022-18 Adopting 2023 Fiscal Year Budget. This is the ordinance adopting the temporary version of our budget, and you'll find its full text in this document. How accurate are our budget numbers? As in any budget, many of the numbers are estimations. For example, we don't find out exactly how many tax dollars we'll receive from the county till well after the end of the fiscal year. So the amount we budget could actually be quite a bit different than what we actually get. There are also a couple of computing errors in this version of the budget that will be corrected before final approval. What factors have caused our biggest expenditures? Three main things have boosted our costs for 2023: . Inflation ��� Particularly construction inflation, which can run up to four times the rate of standard consumer inflation. . Roads ��� Road repair and maintenance have always been costly. This budget calls for $86,000 in city funds for general road maintenance. . Legal Costs ��� Based on trending expenses, the city has budgeted $150,000 for 2023 attorney fees. A portion of those funds will be used in the creation of the Summit Creek development agreement. But the majority of the cost comes from legal action against the city arising from an ongoing neighbor dispute. Will I find city employee salaries in the budget? No. The budget only shows blanket accounts for salaries and wages, and each of those accounts pays for multiple employees. But the salaries of local government employees is considered public information. If you're interested, our city information can be found at this site: https://transparent.utah.gov/ . Is this the final budget? No. It was passed as a temporary budget in order to submit it to the state by the required deadline. However, because the city is requesting a tax increase, we will hold a Truth in Taxation hearing on August 9 at 6:00 PM at the City Center for resident questions and input. City council members will have the chance to respond to that hearing and make changes to the budget before they vote to finalize it. So how much will our property tax increase? There are a couple of ways to look at this question. If we just look at budget numbers, the 2022 budget shows a requested property tax of $790,000 . But to balance the 2023 budget we need $857, 239, which is a tax increase of about $67,000 over last year. [Comment by newslist moderator: a better way to state this is that taxpayers will see their tax increase over last year due to increased valuations AND a very small increase in the tax *rate*.] However, that doesn't show us the whole picture. Here's why: The county charges taxes according to a specific tax rate. And if we use exactly the same tax rate as last year, we actually get more than the $790,000 that was budgeted for 2022. The reason? There are more homes in Woodland Hills now, and many of our homes have increased in value. So now, last year's rate yields $821,278. That means we actually only need a tax increase of about $36,000 to balance the 2023 budget. (This is what Councilman David Pratt explained in a recent email the city sent out.) For each of us as residents, our tax increase will depend on the value of our individual homes. Either way, the Woodland Hills portion of our tax bill will only be a small percentage of the total charged by the county. [Comment by newslist moderator: "small" is usually about 20% to 30%.] Watch this video to get a more detailed look at our budget: It's an 11- minute video giving a line-by-line explanation of our most significant budget items, along with background information about them. You'll find it at this link: https://youtu.be/ofKCHd3WnyI This report and video were produced by Glenn Anderson for the Woodland Hills Transparency Committee. Content provided by City Councilman David Pratt and Finance Director Chris Helvey.