Youtube.com/Alpine School District
The Alpine School District board of education meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024 is shown.
Some residents in Utah County will pay more in property taxes after the Alpine School District unanimously approved a proposed increase.
The certified rate for FY 2025 will go from .005715 to .006115.
The increase represents around an additional $107 in annual property taxes or roughly $9 a month for homeowners living within ASD’s boundaries with a median home value of $489,000. Overall, it’s a 7% increase.
The tax hike was approved during an Alpine School District Board of Education meeting where a Truth-In-Taxation hearing was held Tuesday evening.
Alpine School District Business Administrator Jason Sundberg outlined in a presentation the plan for how the tax increase would be allocated.
It includes operation investment in full-time employees in an effort to reduce class sizes, teacher pay increases, a mentor program for educators, special education resources, modernized facilities and technologies, covering inflated costs to maintain building upkeep, and funding toward building a new high school in Saratoga Springs.
Prior to the school board members passing the motion, they heard from more than two dozen citizens during a public comment period.
The intense portion of the meeting lasted over an hour, with residents making emotional and passionate comments – the majority in opposition of paying more in property taxes.
Lindon resident Alicia Alba greeted the school board and thanked them for their service but expressed her disappointment about taxes being raised. She feels the district’s financial challenges are just one of the reasons why a three-way split of the district is needed.
“We’ve reached a point where what was once an economy of scale is now a diseconomy of scale, where our board feels pressure to rob Peter to pay Paul, where we can no longer successfully bond and where disparate and critical needs across our district are not being met,” Alba said to the school board. “Unfortunately, I believe that our overly large district is no longer the system best equipped to continue providing a high-quality education to our children.”
Sean Barry of Pleasant Grove strongly disagreed with the proposed increase. “That’s not inflationary, that’s somebody can’t figure out how to manage your doggone money, that’s my opinion,” he told the school board.
He went on to question board members about their personal incomes. “I’d like to ask the board, those who are salaried employees, how many of you got a raise? If you will, share that, did you get a raise this year?” Barry sternly asked the school board members.
“That’s not appropriate for a public hearing like this,” Board President Sara Hacken responded.
However, not every commenter opposed the tax hike.
Orem resident Michele Sorensen spoke in support of the increase. She cited the need for more teacher funding to reduce class sizes and expressed disappointment in lawmakers for not allocating enough public education funding.
“We need to hold our legislation accountable for the decreases that they’ve given to public funding over the last few years,” Sorensen said.
This tax increase comes as a potential split of the district via multiple interlocal agreements will head to the ballot for voters in November.
Rich Stowell, ASD’s director of communications, said regardless of the outcome at the polls, the increase ultimately would remain.
“Our board decided to act now to ensure financial sustainability in the near and long term. That responsibility rests with the board alone, while the question about whether to establish new school districts belongs to voters,” Stowell said in a statement emailed to the Daily Herald.
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