OGDEN VALLEY, Utah — A new city in Weber County is dealing with some growing pains that could be passed on to the people who live there.
Ogden Valley City leaders said they have to make up for a $2.2 million budget shortfall that came after incorporating into a new city. This could mean either a 519% tax increase for residents, or imposing multiple fees and cutting expenses to come close to bridging the gap. But the route they go depends on what the state allows them to do.
Ogden Valley Mayor Janet Wampler said right off the bat, they have had challenges.
"We knew going in that we were starting the city upside down, financially,” she said.
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Wampler said even though the feasibility study commissioned by the state before incorporation showed Ogden Valley would have a 5 percent budget surplus for at least three years, there were concerns about the numbers used. She said going into the formation of the new city, they expected some financial gaps, so they were working on increasing city revenue.
Right now, residents pay the unincorporated Weber County tax rate.
"For most of the people in the valley, their property tax is about 60 and 90 dollars, that’s it for the year on their property,” Wampler said.
But that’s not going to be enough anymore. She said the $2.2 million needed is to balance the city’s budget and pay for necessary services.
"I want to stress: This is a basic budget. This is not hiring a bunch of staff, this is not building a city hall, this is not paying for all new asphalt roads,” she clarified.
"I’m concerned,” said Shane Dunleavy, who lives in Ogden Valley. “Appears we're facing a pretty large tax increase, and it’s unfortunate."
Dunleavy is worried about the impact of the increases.
"A lot of people who come to this valley and retire and they’re on a fixed income, there's a lot of people who've been here for generations, and they’ve seen their property values triple in the past 5-7 years, and now they’re going to see their city tax line item increase by 5-7 fold, so it’s just more money that people don’t have,” Dunleavy added.
Wampler said they also lost out on thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue due to the warm winter. They planned to increase property taxes early on, but can't do that right now.
"It became apparent that because of an administrative procedure, we are unable to go through Truth in Taxation," she said. "We disagree with that assessment, and that is still up in the air, and we are still having that discussion with the state."
The mayor said they believe they are a taxing entity because they charge other fees, but the state said since they did not file the required paperwork with the tax commission by Jan. 1, 2026, which does not allow them to do the truth and taxation process this year, but they can next year.
Wampler added that while they are working with the state to be recognized to collect their own property tax, the county passed a resolution to collect taxes at the old rate and give that to the city, which does help.
City leaders hope to be able to increase property taxes. Wampler said that would help reach their goal and also put reliefs in place to help subsidize costs for people who qualify. But if that does not work, the city would have to impose all kinds of fees to try to come close to the difference.
"Problem is, fees don’t have relief mechanisms. It doesn’t make up the full shortfall, so we also have to slash a lot of our expenses,” she added.
She said she doesn't want to have to increase costs for people, but might have to.
"It will increase people's costs by a few hundred dollars, that is true, and that hurts people that are living paycheck to paycheck,” Wampler said. “There is no way to sugarcoat that, but that is the cost of becoming a city, and that is the barebones cost."
