Ivins council signals move toward truth-in-taxation as staff trims budget to reduce $1.03M gap

Mayor (speaker 1) opened a May 1 work meeting of the Ivins City Council to review tentative budgets and framed three options to close an estimated general‑fund shortfall: reduce expenditures, start a truth‑in‑taxation process to raise property taxes, or pursue a hybrid of cuts and new revenue.

Kate, a city staff member presenting the Version 2 budget, said she removed roughly $241,000 (a quarter of $1,000,000) previously proposed for a road replacement transfer from the general fund and that the updated figures reduced the general‑fund deficit to about $1,031,000. "At the end of the day, the difference between the revenues and the expenditures came in around $9,000," she said while describing recent adjustments to revenues and expenditures; she later clarified larger one‑time non‑operating revenues used in prior years had masked structural pressures in FY25.

Dale, a city staff member who outlined the truth‑in‑taxation process, said the council should treat May as a discussion month, adopt tentative budgets before the second meeting in June, and—if the council wants to consider a property‑tax increase—notify the county so the required public notices can be published and a hearing scheduled in July or August. "May would be a discussion month about the budget. We then have to set a public hearing," Dale said, summarizing the statutory steps and timing.

Several council members said the city has little "fat" left to trim and expressed support for beginning the truth‑in‑taxation procedure while staff continues to probe expenditure savings. "I support pursuing the truth in taxation process," said a council member (speaker 8), echoing others who said staffing and equipment needs make deep cuts impractical. At the same time, councillors emphasized the need for a clear communications plan to explain the reasons for pursuing additional revenue and how any increase would be used.

Councilmembers and staff discussed illustrative homeowner impacts from a property‑tax adjustment using sample market and taxable values; staff said the city will provide clearer per‑household examples for common value tiers before any final decision. The council did not vote on a tax amount at the meeting; members instead asked staff to prepare notices, refine the tentative budget, and gather data ahead of the June tentative‑budget deadline.

The meeting ended with a procedural motion to adjourn. The council’s next steps are to finalize the tentative budgets by the designated June meeting, continue outreach and analysis, and, if they decide to proceed, set public hearings required under the truth‑in‑taxation process.