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Show wwe omer’ TE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS November Page 3 15, 2006 Guest Commentary Is Our Valley Funding A Countywide Budget? There may not be much that the residents of the Ogden Valley can do to slow the rise in assessed valuations made by the Weber County Assessor. For the Weber County Commission, this rapid rise is truly a dream come true. Funding their countywide budget becomes a lay up as increases in real estate values in the Ogden Valley far outpace those in the rest of the county. I just can’t believe that no one is talking about the expenditure side of the equation. Everyone seems to be fixated on just the assessment/collection aspect. When I drive by the site for the new Huntsville fire station, my blood boils as to why anyone in the Valley needed to vote for a separate parcel tax for that station. And more parcel taxes for recreational improvements? I know we need the station and we do need lots of other improvements, but why did we need a separate incremental parcel tax to pay for them? With all the tax money being collected in the Valley, the Weber County Commission should have just said, “We'll take care of that fire station. Thanks. No parcel tax needed. And we'll cover that recreation thing, and we'll build you a bunch of trails! We appreciate all you do for us, Ogden Valley folks.” It’s amazing what we give to the county in taxes and how little we hold them accountable for their expenditures back into the Valley. (And last year, Valley people even voted against incorporating Eden, which would have made Weber County’s sweet deal a little less sweet. I would say that the Commission is siphoning off some huge percentage of tax revenues collected in the Valley for use down the canyon somewhere else. This may, in fact, be the Commission’s dirty-little secret. We don’t hear about how much (as a percentage) is returned to the Valley because they would never, ever want us to know. Accountability in this case is not a winning proposition for them. They would brush it off by saying: up that percentage.) 2) “Oh well, you must know that the rest of the County carried the folks in the Ogden Valley for decades, when the only people up there were poor farmers. Now it’s time for a little payback.” (Fine, let’s see the numbers. Let’s see how much tax money was really pushed up the canyon and over how many years and now let’s look at the tax dollars being sucked out of the Valley now and we’ll compare them. A simple time-value-of-money analysis works well. Even if we still gave the County some egregious return on their early-invested money, say 20% per year, my guess would still be that we are currently pouring money down the canyon far exceeding any reasonable business relationship.) im a Valley folks far more familiar with the county’s budget than I should begin to (carefully) parse their expenditure columns and begin to measure and report the relationship of Valley tax revenues versus expenditures made in the Valley. Some delegation of Valley leaders and representatives should begin discussions with the Commission to make it clear that a minimum of, say, 90% of the tax revenues collected in the Valley should be returned each year to the Valley in some form of services or capital expenditures. Huntsville could get the rest of their water system paid for. The Valley could get trails everywhere. And, of course, my own personal dream would be that the County embarks on a longterm mission to further clean up Pineview Reservoir by building a special sewage facility somewhere west of Ogden, and installing a fat ewer line across Ogden and up the canyon to eventually hook up everyone in the Valley. Expensive? Yes. Needed? Absolutely. Could we pay for it? We already do. And that should reflected in the things the Weber County Commissions buys for us. They should be forced to pass a policy to return to us all, or a VERY large percentage, of what they collect. Or they should split the Mill Levy into one for the Valley and one for Ogden. Ours would be far less, based on what we actually spend. We pay 15 mills to Weber County in property tax. Morgan residents pay 9. If the Ogden Valley were its own County, I am guessing that we would pay less than 5 mills. That would imply 1) “We really give quite a large percentage back, but it’s really hard to say, since it’s buried within the various budgets.” (But then my guess is that it would only take a few working days for a budget analyst to break down those budget items and cough ge ESS that we spend less than 30% of what is collected up here and that would be tragic. What would be more tragic is that this is happening and nobody even knows about it. he bottom line to the Valley residents should be, “How much are WE getting for our 14.8 mills? What are the County Commissioners doing for us with OUR tax money?” Or, are we just the tax engine for the rest of the county? I would implore the Valley’s government and business leaders to gather a small Tax Policy Task Force, approach the County Commission on this, and get us all some numbers to look at for consideration. A threat to incorporate the entire Valley, while not a great thought, may at least provide the required leverage to get some answers and a rational tax policy from the County Commission. Jeff Holt, Huntsville Snowbasin Hosts Demo Days for Ski Education Foundation The Snowbasin Alpine Team is the racing organization of the Snowbasin Foundation (SSEF), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of ers. The Alpine Team provides a fun, yet challenging way for young men improve their skiing techniques, and to develop the skills and discipline that lifelong enjoyment of an active outdoor life. Proceeds from the Flying Moose lier this year at Snowbasin were contributed to the foundation. 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