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Show W. Bountiful maintains franchise tax By GARY R. BLODGETT WEST BOUNTIFUL Despite De-spite bitter opposition from a citizens group last week, West Bountiful City Council has refused to rescind an earlier decision to impose im-pose a 1.5 percent franchise (user) tax for all utilities. In a prior council meeting the council voted 3-2 in favor of the proposal which will amount to about ab-out $2 per household per month, according to Councilman Lynn Kenison who made the motion for council vote. Councilmen Claude Vaughn and Bruce Talbot supported sup-ported the motion. But Mayor Jerry Thompson and the two remaining council members mem-bers vigorously opposed the prop osal as did a large group if irate citizens headed by former mayor Arch Widdison. It was the first tax increase in West Bountiful in more than 10 years and the first franchise tax to be imposed on the city, explained ex-plained Councilman Kenison. Legally, Leg-ally, the franchise tax could be as much as six percent, he noted, but the tax proposal is "barely enough to continue to provide necessary services after severe cutbacks in all departments." He said the city has lost 20 percent per-cent of its federal funding in the past five years and there have been no salary increases for employees for three years. The city has eight fulltime employees four police officers, two administrative personnel, per-sonnel, and two maintenance people. Councilman Kenison said the new franchise tax will bring a net income to the city of about $39,000. The total city budget is approximately approxi-mately $625,000. He noted that the budget for street repairs will be only 20 percent per-cent of prior allocations and that all other departments have suffered similar cutbacks. Other council members and a host of residents are angry with the council decision. One group of citizens has said that they will ask an attorney to study the possibility of seceding from West Bountiful and being annexed by Woods Cross. There are other reports that Phillips Petroleum Pet-roleum officials are considering moving their utility meters across the street into Woods Cross to 'j avoid paying the franchise tax. ' There is a $15,000 tax limit on any business. "I have never seen so many angry people with so many threats ; and allegations as I have experi-enced experi-enced over this issue," said Coun-cilman Coun-cilman Kenison. :' Meanwhile, many residents feel that their concerns have been ignored and have stated that they will seek legal actions against the -"' (three) councilmen of impeach- ' ment. Opponents of the franchise tax allege that new businesses will cease coming into the city (because ' of the tax) and that the proposal -will hurt everyone financially, :; especially the elderly. - |