Utah Cities Criticized For Padding Their Budgets With User Fees Instead Of Raising Taxes

Each year since 2011, Sandy has diverted about $1.2 million from water sales revenue into its general fund to balance the budget. Several residents this year decided they were sick of it. If the city needs more money, they say, it should be transparent and raise property taxes. These critics have the ear of state Auditor John Dougall, whose office wrote two letters saying the practice isn’t illegal but should be clearer. The residents also highlighted an issue that irked some lawmakers were irk... <iframe src="http://www.sltrib.com/csp/mediapool/sites/sltrib/pages/garss.csp" height="1" width="1" > </frame>