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Cedar Hills loses CARE tax December 6, 2016, 4:42 pmOn Nov. 8, 1,769 voters (51.2 percent) refused to support the Cultural Arts and Recreation .01 percent sales tax with 1,686 (48.8 percent) voting in favor of it. The CARE tax was first approved by Cedar Hills voters in 2008 and again in 2012. In the past, it has been used to fund a basketball court at Heritage Park and a restroom at Mesquite Park as well as finish the community center basement and fund various recreation activities. City leaders had hoped to use this round of funding to pay for improvements at Bayhill Park and Heritage Park. City Councilmember Rob Crawley has been vocal in his opposition to the tax. "It is not the proper role of government to tax and spend money on programs that are not necessities for its residents," he wrote in the voter information pamphlet mailed out to residents. "Just as it would be wrong for an individual to force neighbors to all pitch in for a swimming pool that this individual wanted, it is not right for a government to force individuals to 'pitch in' for recreational activities," he wrote. Other city leaders have expressed their concern that some of those programs might not be funded without the tax. "CARE tax funds are used to augment other city funds to provide youth and adults with cultural arts and recreation programming without traveling to other cities or paying nonresident rates as charged by other cities. The proposed CARE tax helps keep our tax dollars in our city to be used for Cedar Hills programs. Over the past eight years, CARE tax funds have been utilized by Cedar Hills to successfully fund a variety of recreation and cultural arts programs," those leaders wrote in their argument. In the past, the CARE tax has generated about $40,000 annually for the city. "The CARE tax could have been put to good use, but I understand the residents were saying clearly yesterday that they've been taxed enough by the federal, state and county government and don't want to be taxed any more," Mayor Gary Gygi said in response to the outcome. "In Cedar Hills we've been very responsible with their sales tax dollars," he said. "When I was appointed in 2012, the amount of residential property tax that went directly to the city was 24 percent. Since 2012, while property taxes as a whole have gone up slightly, the portion that has gone to Cedar Hills has dropped to just under 19 percent." The community news source for Eagle Mountain Utah, Saratoga Springs Utah, Lehi Utah, American Fork Utah, Highland Utah, Alpine Utah, and The Cedar Valley, including Cedar Fort Utah and Fairfield Utah. Copyright 2024 The Crossroads Journal LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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