Friday, October 16, 2026The Utah Ledger

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Auditing Tooele · From the records

Tooele's Depot redevelopment area has stopped collecting tax increment. Its fund held $9.4 million in 2025.

Tooele's fiscal 2027 budget says the Depot redevelopment project area has sunset and no longer collects tax increment. The fund ended fiscal 2025 with $9,385,330, almost all of it assigned to redevelopment agency projects, and the city budgets $2,045,758 for it in fiscal 2027.

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Source / event date: FY2027 adopted budget; financial statements for fiscal year ended June 30, 2025

Continuing story: Auditing Tooele

Tooele

Tooele's Depot redevelopment project area has stopped collecting tax increment, according to the city's adopted fiscal 2027 budget. The budget says remaining funds are used to complete project area needs. [1]

Tax increment is the share of growth in property taxes inside a project area that other taxing entities let a redevelopment agency keep for a set period. [1]

The last audited year

The city's audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025 shows the Depot Redevelopment Agency fund collected $4,760,715 in taxes and $5,456,817 in total revenue. It spent $3,461,268 and transferred $40,987 out. [2]

Its fund balance rose $1,954,562 during the year, from $7,430,768 to $9,385,330. The fund held $9,738,729 in cash and cash equivalents and $40,987 in restricted cash and investments at year-end. [2]

Of the fund balance, $9,344,343 was assigned to redevelopment agency projects and $40,987 was restricted for debt service. An assigned balance is money the government has designated for a purpose; it is not the same as a contractual commitment. [2]

The fiscal 2027 budget

The adopted fiscal 2027 budget lists $2,045,758 in total Depot revenue and the same amount in expenditures. Its fiscal 2026 budget column shows $1,501,932. [1]

The 1000 North Community Reinvestment Area is accounted for in a different fund. The budget says that fund covers tax increment revenues and related spending within that area, restricted to economic development, infrastructure, low-income housing and redevelopment. It budgets $205,000 for fiscal 2027. [1]

What the records reviewed don't show

The records reviewed do not list the remaining Depot obligations, when the last increment was received, or what will happen to any balance once project needs are met. They also don't show the fund's balance at June 30, 2026. [1][2]

Fund balance is an accounting measure, not a cash count, and an assigned balance is not a contract. The fiscal 2025 figures predate the budget's statement that collection has ended; the two are from different periods.

Sources

  1. Tooele City · Adopted Budget, fiscal year 2026–2027
  2. Tooele City Corporation · Financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 (Larson & Company)

Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.