League offers an alternative to HB236: single budget with impact schedule and restricted hold

Gary Hill, Bountiful city manager and League consultant Carrie Nakamura have been working on an alternative to Representative Karen Peterson's House Bill 236. HB236 in its current draft would require taxing entities to produce two full budgets — one reflecting a contemplated property-tax increase and one without it — a requirement staff said would be technically burdensome and unwieldy for many jurisdictions.

Gary described an alternative approach the work group developed in state-conversations: local governments would adopt a single proposed budget as they do now, but if a property-tax increase is being contemplated they would also publish a concise, department-level "schedule of impacts" summarizing in numbers and text what would not be funded if the increase fails. That schedule would travel with the budget materials and be updated as the preliminary budget changes; it is intended to give taxpayers clear, verifiable connections between a proposed increase and the programs or positions it would fund.

To address the sponsor’s concern about jurisdictions appearing to "spend in advance," Gary proposed an accounting safeguard: when a budget is adopted in June that includes a contemplated tax increase, the city would set aside an equivalent amount in a restricted account that cannot be spent until the final budget is adopted after the truth-in-taxation hearing in August. That restricted hold would be released via a budget amendment only after the public hearing and the final adoption, ensuring entities are not operationally committed before the public process concludes.

Attendees debated whether a single budget with an attached impact schedule preserves public clarity better than producing two separate full budgets. Some speakers urged that an initial budget without a contemplated tax increase would avoid the perception of prior commitment; Gary replied that adopting a budget that matches the financial statements while publishing an accessible impact summary better enables public verification of how proposed tax increases would be used.

Staff said HB236 had passed the House unanimously and was pending in the Senate that afternoon; League staff planned a Slido poll to measure member comfort with the alternative and asked members to convey feedback to the League before further negotiations with the sponsor and school-district and county partners.

Next steps: League officers planned to meet that evening with Representative Peterson and other stakeholders to refine the alternative drafting and to assess buy-in from school districts and counties.