Ivins council weighs truth-in-taxation notice, road-fund options as FY26 tentative budget shows $1.03 million shortfall

The Ivins City Council on May 1 discussed tentative budgets for the fiscal year ending 2026 and options to close a general-fund shortfall after staff presented an updated “version 2” budget.

Mayor opened the work meeting saying the council must choose between reducing spending to available revenue or initiating the state’s truth-in-taxation process to raise property-tax revenue. "We are confronted with a budget deficit that is significant and our only response to that by law is to either reduce the budget to match the projected revenue or to go through a truth in taxation process," the Mayor said.

Why it matters: the council faces a structural gap in operating revenue after one-time sources that bolstered recent years—American Rescue Plan Act funds, elevated interest earnings and earlier building-permit fees—are no longer available at the same level. How the council treats the shortfall will affect staffing, capital projects and the city’s reserves.

Kate, a city staff member who presented the budget updates, said version 2 of the tentative budget reduced the projected shortfall by removing a $241,000 allocation for a road-replacement fund (previously proposed in the general fund) and making modest revenue and expenditure adjustments. "At the end of the day, the difference between the revenues and the expenditures came in around $9,000" between the initial and updated drafts of individual accounts, Kate said, and removing the road allocation lowered the current deficit to about $1,031,000.

Kate also reported fund-specific changes: a sewer lift-station project was reduced by $300,000 from a $1.4 million projection to…