How Orem Can Pay For Utopia

Op Ed by Hans Anderson Orem City Council member.  Hans Anderson Herald Extra.com
This Opinion appeared in the Daily Herald newspaper June 13, 2012.  This is not the entire piece.  Please refer to the link to see the entire article.

"Should the City of Orem raise your property taxes 47 percent?

Nov. 8, 2011, you voted on the following question: Shall the Alpine School District raise your property taxes 17 percent? That was $36. Fifty-three percent of Orem residents voted for that bond. That was transparency.

The November 8, 2011 ballot should have included another question: Shall Orem City raise your property tax 47 percent? That will be $97. Lack of transparency about Orem city finances in the 2011 city council will mean the city council, not citizens will decide how to cover their mistakes.

Don't be fooled. If it were not for the city council's accumulating UTOPIA bond mistakes -- 2004 ($43 million), 2008 ($119 million) and 2010 and 2011 ($125 million) -- and the 2 percent pay raise they want, the Orem city budget discussion would be centered on an 80 cents per month per household sewer and water fee increase.

• Source of Revenue: $1 million from the mall. They have received more than $10 million the past 10 years but they get no city subsidy this year.

• Cuts to Consider: (1) If all departments were told to cut 2 percent, that would produce $1.6 million. (2) $235,000 a year in credit card fees could be eliminated.

Those sources and cuts create the $2.8 million needed for UTOPIA.

I'm going to receive corrected information from the city, but in the rough, cutting 4 percent off employees' 22 percent retirement package would cut about $900,000 out of the budget and not cut employee take home pay.

If the highly compensated -- not all employees -- were to take the brunt of the cuts (employees earning more than $70,000), the city could increase their health insurance contribution from $50 per month to $250 per month, and generate $700,000. We could delay buying new equipment and save $80,000. We could drop association memberships and save $50,000.

• To sign petitions on: (1) Property tax increase, and (2) Construction of the Center for Story, please contact Wayne Burr: wayneburr@hotmail.com, (801) 224-6992. To vote electronically on the council petition go to transparencyorem.com"
• Hans Andersen is an Orem city councilman and a trained accountant.


Orem's Budget Can't Get Past UTOPIA