Public Hearing: Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Proposed Budget

Who wants to talk city budget?! 

Did I already lose you on just that first sentence? 😬😴

If so, I understand! I would've scrolled past too. But if you are interested in a simplified budget explanation, I hope you will continue reading. These are your tax dollars after all! Where do they go?!?

On Tuesday June 8th there will be a public hearing to pass fiscal year budget 2021-2022. The admin of finance committee has been working so hard at this budget for months now. I appreciate their time and dedication to this task, it is no small feat. This is your opportunity to relay back to your representatives your concerns, comments and questions on the budget and how your tax dollars are being implemented. This will be 6pm at city hall.

Here's a look at the budget at a glance: 

•SWC has approximately $2.6 million available spending dollars to allocate at the discretion of the city (meaning funds that have not already been earmarked or assigned to other areas). 

•Our debt has decreased to just under $200k due to principal payment on bonds. •The city's current property tax rate is proposed to bring in just under $755k for 2021-2022. Because the county is discontinuing paramedic services, the taxes SW citizens pay for those services to Davis County will be redirected to SWC after a truth in taxation hearing. This will raise the revenue to just over $830k, but that excess is expected to be applied to the costs of providing our own paramedic services. 

•SWC currently has just under $640k in savings as a rainy day funds and to float monies while waiting for property tax funds to come in, which is 24.4% general fund total revenue. 

•Capital Projects are one time costs for projects. The proposed budgets includes several different items for this fiscal year. Some of these are demolition of the Civic Building (directly in front of the fire station), streetlight replacement program (moving us to own our own streetlights rather than Rocky Mountain Power), a baseball diamond for Cherry Farms park and upgrades to Canyon Meadows Park and design for a new public works building among others. You can see review these updates and the budgeted amounts on page 10 and 11 of the city's proposed budget (linked below). 

•SWC will also be doing updates to many roads in this proposed budget, including mill & overlay for 475 E, View Drive and Heather Cove. Chip and seal will take place on 4 other streets and various other places within the city. You can see a map of all street upgrades on page 95. 

•The budget will let you see exactly where other funds are going to - police and fire, employees, vehicle replacement programs, infrastructure costs and more.

That wasn't so bad right? I hope you will each take a moment to dig in and see exactly where the revenue and funds SWC has is going. And I equally hope that you will come and let us know how you think we are doing on Tuesday evening! Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have. ☺️

To see the packet for Tuesday's meeting go here:  

To see the proposed budget only, go here:

Water Audits and Other Resources from Weber Basin

 Did you know Weber Basin Water will come preform a water audit on your lawn for you? This is a great resource I have been meaning to do. Anyone else have weird patches of lawn that seem to die no matter what? 🙋🏼‍♀️. Here is a description of what they can offer. The website even shows you how to do your own audit as well as a number of other resources.

Thanks to everyone on South Weber who is working on conversing water! The code committee will be looking into allowing xeriscaping as an option very soon. Keep it up and stay cool peeps! I don’t ever remember a June so hot so soon before!

"The average homeowner in Utah applies almost double the amount of water onto their landscape than is necessary. Most of that is not an issue of belligerently wasting water, but simply a lack of knowing how much water our landscapes need to thrive, how efficient our sprinkler systems are, and how quickly they apply water on to the lawn. Water audits are designed to help homeowners learn these particulars so they can be as efficient as possible with landscape irrigation. 

The audits consist of well-trained interns from Weber Basin coming to your home and doing a personal assessment on the property. They check the irrigation system and make suggestions if they see anything that could make it more efficient. A simple field soil test is performed to determine general soil type and texture. A catch-cup test is performed to see how quickly the sprinklers are applying water to the lawn and to determine how uniform the water is being applied. Studies show that applying half an inch of water is ideal to adequately water the soil for turf roots without too much water running off the surface of the soil or out of the root zone.”

Check out their website to see more information!