David Spencer, county commission candidate, pledges no tax hikes without voter approval and seeks salary rollback

David Spencer, a Republican candidate for Utah County Commission seat B, said he would not raise property taxes during his term and called for restoring commissioner pay to roughly six-figure levels while pursuing departmental efficiencies.

"I do not agree with a 67% tax increase or a 48% tax increase," Spencer said, referring to past county property-tax decisions. He added that any substantial tax increase should be placed "on the ballot for the citizens to vote on it." Spencer later pledged, "Absolutely," when asked if he would commit to not raising property taxes during his term.

Spencer criticized what he described as a rapid rise in commissioner pay, saying the jump from about $117,000 to $170,000 in recent years was "ridiculous." He said he would seek to "walk the salaries back" and separate elected-official compensation from employee pay decisions to avoid elected officials voting directly on their own raises.

The candidate emphasized a strategy-and-innovation approach to county management: tasking an internal review team to identify redundancies, cross-train staff where appropriate and seek grant funding before cutting services. "We need to find efficiencies in each department," he said, noting his experience finding $1.7 million in savings while on the Orm city council.

Spencer also voiced concerns about transportation plans that prioritize center-running bus rapid transit on State Street. He cautioned that medians and restricted turns could slow emergency response times and discourage customers from visiting storefronts: "If you have a fire call... the call time turns from two minutes to five minutes. You're probably dead," he said, describing the potential safety risk.

On economic development policy, Spencer criticized tax-increment financing and redevelopment incentives that he said shift tax revenue away from taxpayers and neighboring cities. "If you collect the taxes on that, then you could do a lot of nice things for us or you could lower our taxes," he said, arguing incentives often do not produce a one-to-one return for the public purse.

Asked about public-health mandates, Spencer said he would not have supported a countywide mask mandate in 2020, calling mandated masking an overreach and framing masking as a personal choice. He expressed support for local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on serious offenders, while acknowledging federal policy ultimately shapes immigration law.

Spencer repeatedly returned to transparency: he said he would create a transparency portal to show attendance, travel and voting records for commissioners and said he had no problem sharing his personal credit score if requested. He said he is self-funding his campaign so far and provided campaign contact information at the episode's close.

The interview aired on the Utah County Republican Party podcast hosted by Charles Max Wood. Spencer supplied his campaign website (DavidSpencerforUtah.com) and phone number during the episode.