Salt Lake City Council clears final wording and contingencies ahead of 2025–26 budget adoption

At a June 10 Salt Lake City Council work session, council staff briefed members on remaining issues ahead of the fiscal year 2025–26 budget adoption, reporting updated tax growth, a separate judgment levy increase for the library and edits to conditional language for trail funding.

The briefing, led by Jennifer Bruno, council executive director, said the city will receive about $1,360,000 more in new growth revenue than was in the mayor’s recommended budget and that the judgment levy is $482,000 higher than the recommendation. Bruno said staff updated the council’s “key changes” to use those additional revenues to reduce the amount of general fund balance needed to balance the budget; the council’s quick calculation put the projected fund balance at about 13.32%.

Those revenue increases were partly offset by $24,000 in council-directed additions: $10,000 for Westside air monitors and $14,000 for art across the seven council districts, Bruno said. The items will appear in an updated key-changes document and the budget adoption ordinance that the council will consider at tonight’s formal meeting.

Why this matters: the additional new-growth revenue reduces the drawdown on reserves for next year and affects how contingencies and one-time allocations are funded. The library levy interpretation, however, raises policy questions that staff said need follow-up before next fiscal year.

Bruno told the council that a county and state tax commission interpretation treated the library’s judgment levy as an entity “under the city” rather than a separate taxing entity. Because that determination was made too close to adoption, staff did not reverse it before finalizing the ordinance; the budget documents therefore include the library as a line item within the Salt Lake City Corporation budget for this fiscal year. Bruno and council staff said finance and the city attorney see policy consequences from that interpretation and that the administration plans to coordinate with state and county tax staff to revisit the issue before the next fiscal year.

Council members pressed for clearer coordination between finance, the library and the attorney’s office so roles and responsibilities are defined and similar surprises can be avoided. One council member asked that the city request meetings with the Utah State Tax Commission and county staff “as soon as possible.” Bruno said those coordination steps are planned.

Trails conditional appropriation: Bruno presented a conditional-appropriation language for trail projects that staff had emailed to council members before the session. Council members and staff debated several word changes to avoid ambiguity. Key edits the council agreed to include: - Replace wording such as “divert” with terms like “rerouting small portions of unsustainable segments.” - Remove the phrase “social or” from “closing and restoring social or redundant trails” to avoid an undefined term; after discussion the council agreed to refer simply to closing trails identified as redundant or unsustainable and to clarify that no trails will be closed until an individual planning process occurs. - Change a phrase reading “should adhere” to the mandatory “shall adhere” in the maintenance-recommendation clause.

Public Lands staff confirmed the city will not close trails built before 2020 without additional planning; newer informal trails created since 2020 may be evaluated differently. The council took a straw poll to approve the revised language for inclusion in the budget ordinance; the straw poll was unanimous.

Legislative intent and budget rubric: staff also brought a condensed legislative-intent statement that several council members had revised during the day. Some members opposed creating a separate report and instead favored integrating the language into the city’s existing budget evaluation rubric or matrix to avoid extra paperwork. Council members asked the rubric to include explicit attention to impacts on fixed-income residents — for example, exploring tools similar to a circuit breaker to offset tax increases for people on fixed incomes. Council members indicated unanimous support in a straw poll for the consolidated legislative-intent language.

Motion sheet and next steps: staff reviewed a multi-motion sheet that will be used at the formal meeting. At the work session staff summarized six motions that will appear on the formal agenda, including separate motions described by staff as adopting the library fund budget, adopting the city budget (with contingencies), setting tax rates, approving portions of the CIP to allow debt service on July 1, adopting legislative-intent statements, and approving other ordinances except changes to Title 2 to be discussed later. Bruno said the final motion sheet will incorporate the agreed edits and be printed for the formal meeting.

What was not decided: the work session produced no final ordinance votes; it produced staff direction, wordsmithing agreements and unanimous straw polls on the trail language and legislative intent. Formal adoption and any recorded votes were scheduled for the formal meeting that evening.