Pleasant Grove raises its property tax rate to add a police officer and two firefighters

The Pleasant Grove City Council voted 5-0 on Aug. 18, 2026, to adopt a certified tax rate of 0.001020 for fiscal 2027, up from 0.000938, and then adopted the final fiscal 2027 budget by the same vote. ^[1]

Council members Dianna Andersen, Cyd LeMone, Dustin Phillips, Steve Rogers and Todd Williams voted yes on both resolutions. No one commented at the budget hearing that night. ^[1]

What the increase pays for

The property tax impact statement read into the record by Finance Director Denise Roy lists current city property tax revenue of $4,178,247 and projected revenue with the change of $4,543,914, an additional $365,667, or an estimated 8.75% increase in the city's property tax revenue. ^[1][2]

It estimates the annual increase at $27.16 for a primary residence valued at $601,623, and $49.38 for a commercial property of the same value. ^[1][2]

The statement raises the police budget by $153,667, saying the department "will hire one new police officer and provide funding for reserve and retention," and the fire budget by $212,000, saying the department "will hire two new fire fighters and provide funding for outfitting." ^[1]

The budget's one-page summary breaks the tax money into $212,000 for two full-time firefighters and outfitting, $120,000 for one full-time police officer and $33,667 for reserve and retention funding. A separate list of uses for other new revenue includes another full-time police officer at $120,000, another full-time firefighter at $106,000 and $91,421 in police reserve and retention funding. ^[3]

How the request shrank

At an Aug. 11 public hearing, City Administrator Scott Darrington said the initial proposal would have added two full-time police officers, a reserve officer, retention funding and three full-time firefighters, at a cost of about $683,000, or $4.16 a month on an average home valued at about $580,000. ^[2]

He said sales tax came in $129,841 higher than projected over two months, a new agreement with Alpine School District raised the reimbursement for the school resource officer, and a hotel opened early, adding $30,000 to projected transient room tax. Police body cameras were to be bought with one-time money. Those changes cut the gap by $317,421, to $365,667, or $2.26 a month on an average home valued at $601,623, he said. ^[2]

Darrington said one police and one fire position would be paid through existing funds. He said the city currently has five full-time firefighters per shift and the request would bring that to six, and that it has 0.79 full-time police officers per 1,000 residents. ^[2]

Residents spoke both for and against the increase at the Aug. 11 hearing. Staff said no online or written comments had been received. ^[2]

The final budget

Roy told the council on Aug. 18 that the only change to the final budget since it was last presented was that the property tax and proposed property tax increase lines had been combined, for a total of $4,858,481. ^[1]

The general fund revenue page of the final budget shows that $4,858,481 property tax line for fiscal 2027, compared with $4,290,598 in actual property tax revenue in fiscal 2025. ^[4]