Summit County is considering adopting a $109 million budget for 2027, but property owners won’t see their tax bills rise despite the $6.8 million increase. County Manager Shayne Scott and Chief Finance Officer Matt Leavitt presented the proposed budget to the Summit County Council for the firs t time on Wednesday. The total includes funding for about 13 new positions, a 3.5% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for employees and a 3% merit increase, with flat revenues and no Truth in Taxation. The county budget would increase by 8.3% over this year’s $100.6 million budget. Scott explained the increase was in part because of new grants — such as a $1 million award — that must be recognized in the budget lines rather than added taxes or impacts on residents. “When you’re talking about local government budgets, our budgets have increased, and they have increased over time and are likely to continue to do so,” Scott said. “But one thing I think people don’t understand or always recognize is that we bring in added revenue … that increases your budget.” The County Council discussion was preliminary in nature, as Scott and Leavitt are expected to return over the next few weeks to dive into specific focus areas such as revenue funds like the Transient Room Tax and Restaurant, Arts and Parks Tax grant program; new expenses and significant changes; the COLA, personnel and new positions; fund details; special service districts, funding to outside agencies and capital projects; and unresolved concerns, decisions and final budget preparations. Leavitt said the first draft of the budget was estimated at around $107 million, but it increased to $109 million after he added the final salaries. He estimated that around 60% of the budget is for personnel, which is average for the past few years. Scott said he is concerned about employee recruitment and retention, so the budget is designed to attract and keep workers. “In our specific situation, it’s hard for people to live in our community. So we also need to sometimes import people,” Scott said. “We want to do that as little as we possibly can, but in order to do so, we want to need to pay a high premium to get our employees to come here. And we obviously will need to continue to do that.” The budget process started in June when the County Council laid out its vision and priorities. Then, each department established its needs and submitted requests to the budget committee, which then presented a tentative budget to the county manager. There’s also an appeals process, and Scott heard six requests this year. For example, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office requested eight new positions. Scott agreed to fund half of that. There were 26 original requests for positions across the county, and 13 were unfunded. County Councilor Tonja Hanson was surprised by the number, which she thought was high. Scott said the budget is intended to address departmental, COLA and merit requests; focus on employee recruitment and retention; address requests for new staff; address the use of fund balances; address capital expenditures; address ongoing or new funding initiatives; and more. Leavitt also provided a status update on the current budget, which he said is “doing well.” Summit County Chief Finance Officer Matt Leavitt says the current budget is “doing well” in terms of revenues and expenditures. The orange bars represent the budget, and the blue is where the county is so far this year. Credit: Image courtesy of Summit County Operating revenues are 45% of the budget and the majority of tax revenues come in November and December from property taxes. An additional revenue discussion is scheduled for the Oct. 21 County Council meeting. Leavitt said the county is close to what it anticipated receiving this year on the expenditure side. About 59% of the budget has been used countywide, and Leavitt emphasized that underspending is the goal. He said officials could use some of this year’s savings for next year. Scott also explained that the county doesn’t need to increase property taxes because the budget increase isn’t a result of taxpayers. However, tax bills could still increase if special service districts, such as Basin Recreation, raise rates. The last time the general fund and municipal services funds were increased was 2017, according to Leavitt. The assessing and collecting fund was raised a few years ago. Summit County residents are invited to share their thoughts about the proposed budget during two public hearings: Dec. 2 in the Snyderville Basin and Dec. 9 in Coalville. Written comments are accepted at any time. The post Summit County considers $109 million budget for 2027 appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less