Tonight (August 15, 2015) at 7:30 p.m. in a special session of the City Council, the city intends to increase our debt by 40% and our taxes by 7%. There will be a public comment period at this meeting. Will you join me in attending this meeting in the historic American Fork City Hall building (31 N. Church Street) and in speaking out to let our City Council and Mayor know that the citizens are opposed to this massive new borrowing and tax increase?
What you can expect:
Expect the city to sugar coat this massive new borrowing and tax increase. DON'T BE FOOLED!
- The city will point out the roads that will be repaired and how much the repairs are needed.
- The city will say it will take too long to repair the roads without massive borrowing.
- The city will say interest rates are low so now is a good time to borrow.
- The city will say there has been inflation so we need to raise taxes.
- The city will say the dollar amount of the tax increase isn't that much per citizen, so it's ok.
- The city may say other things that they think will fool you into supporting them on raising your taxes and increasing the cities already high debt load by 40% more!
What you need to know:
- The city is already 54 million dollars in debt. This is a very high debt burden for a city the size of American Fork City.
- The new borrowing of 20 million is a 40% increase in the cities debt load!
- The new borrowing comes with a property tax increase of 7%.
- Property values are near record lows, so as property values are assessed higher and higher in the future, the cities proposed tax rate hike will automatically cost us taxpayers even more and more in the dollar amount.
- The new borrowing will cost over 1 million dollars per year, just for interest.
- The city (us, the taxpayers) will owe this money for 20 years.
- The roads will be worn out and need to be repaired again long before we've paid off the debt.
- This is an Obama style increase in our debt - massive borrowing in a short period of time, with the current politicians spending all the money and future generations straddled with the debt burden for decades.
- Perhaps most crazy of all, the city had a 7.5 million dollar tax surplus (unexpected additional revenue) in June 2013, just two months ago! That money, if spent on roads, would have covered 75% of the first 10 million they want to borrow in 2014!
- The city currently sets aside money for road and capital improvement projects, AND COMPLETES THESE PROJECTS WITHOUT BORROWING!
There are better solutions:
1. Use the money that would be spent on principle and interest to pay back the debt and instead increase the road and capital improvement funds (Pay as you go with the money you would have spent paying debt.)
2. Use unexpected tax surpluses, such as the recent 7.5 million dollars in June (which the city has now already blown) to fund road and capital improvement projects.
3. Re-prioritize existing spending, if necessary, to increase the road and capital improvement fund.
The bottom line is, the city needs to live within it's means. Our city is already straddled with significant debt, and massive new borrowing only makes it harder for our city to remain fiscally stable. We can keep American Fork City a great place to live, but only if we require our public servants to be wise and frugal with our resources, including surplus resources, they already have available. If enough people show up tonight and voice their dissent over proposed higher taxes and borrowing, perhaps we can stop this now, before it goes on the ballot in November.
I urge you to join me tonight at the City Council meeting to send a strong message to our elected officials about fiscal restraint and responsibility.
Sincerely,
Carlton Bowen
P.S. Remember, the meeting is tonight, August 15, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. (be early), at 31 N. Church Street (just down the street from the AF City offices) in downtown American Fork City.
P.S.S. Feel free to let other concerned citizens know about this meeting.
Say NO to higher taxes and massive new borrowing. Vote NO to the Bond issue!
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