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Commissioners decline retroactive inclusion of animal welfare tax line in CRAs
Summary
After review of Community Reinvestment Agreements, county staff recommended excluding the newly created animal welfare tax line from participation in CRAs going forward. Commissioners agreed not to amend past agreements to include that line and to zero the line for future CRAs; staff estimated the county foregoes about $2.7 million annually to CRAs and that including the animal welfare line would cost roughly $200,000.
County Controller Scott Park told the commission on June 30 that Davis County participates in multiple Community Reinvestment Agreements (CRAs) that redirect incremental property‑tax growth to developers and cities for infrastructure. Park said those agreements led the county to forgo about $2.7 million in tax revenue last year.
Park flagged a recent question from cities about whether the county should include a newly established "animal welfare" tax line as part of CRA participation. "So for example, here is one CRA, Farmington's CRA. We are giving up about 70¢ 70% of our tax revenue...If we were to include the animal welfare line in there, we're giving up about $200,000 in property taxes," Park said.
Commissioner Bob Stevenson responded directly: "Oh, I'm only one vote and I say we are not." Chair John Krause said he agreed. Park recommended that the county not make the change retroactive and instead treat the animal welfare line as excluded going forward: "Every entity that we have today, we'll 0 that right out this year. We're not gonna give them any increment. If we gave them increment in the past...we'll just leave that instead of try to claw that back," Park said.
Commissioner discussion noted that CRAs carry caps and may expire before the full term; staff and commissioners emphasized the county's intention to correct its rate rolls going forward rather than attempt retroactive recovery. The session produced no formal vote in the record; commissioners signaled agreement with the staff recommendation and asked staff to proceed accordingly.
Next steps: staff will update CRA participation accounting to exclude the animal welfare tax line for future agreements and will confirm which existing agreements (if any) included the line historically; no retroactive clawbacks were directed.
