West Haven: energy tax, road repayment and bids
The Ledger's review of West Haven's budgets, audits, debt and redevelopment money. Every story in the series, sorted by subject, with the figures the records show and links to the official documents.
Start here
Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why
The Ledger is reading West Haven's budgets, audits and council records. Here is what the city's fiscal 2025 audited financial statements and its fiscal 2027 final budget show.
Read the explainer →Key figures
- $11.3 millionGeneral fund budget, fiscal 2027Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why →
- $2.9 millionGeneral fund balance, June 30, 2025Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why →
- $905,250Projected energy-tax revenue, nine months of fiscal 2027West Haven's 6% energy tax took effect Oct. 1 after a 3-2 vote →
- $112,500Budgeted Hunter Drive reimbursement, fiscal 2027 (forecast)West Haven budgets $112,500 to repay Hunter Drive road work in Walmart's first months →
- $1.45 millionWindsor Park bid awarded to MSCI Builds (draft minutes)West Haven awards about $2.2 million in bids for Poulter Pond and Windsor Park →
- $766,238Storm water reserves budgeted to balance fiscal 2027 budgetWest Haven's storm water budget leans on $766,238 in reserves while studying a fee hike →
- $1.80 millionPaid to STAKER & PARSON COMPANIES, the city's largest payee in FY2026, as reported to the stateTransparent Utah: West Haven City highest-paid vendors FY2026 →
Budgets, reserves and taxes
West Haven's storm water budget leans on $766,238 in reserves while studying a fee hike
The fiscal 2027 storm water budget expects $343,000 from the current $3 monthly fee and lists a $500,000 general fund transfer and $766,238 from reserves to balance it, though the listed sources add up to $289,000 more than the stated total. The city manager's summary says the fee must rise.
West Haven's 6% energy tax took effect Oct. 1 after a 3-2 vote
The council voted in June to implement a 1998 ordinance taxing electricity and natural gas, which had never been applied. The state lists the 6% tax as effective Oct. 1, and the budget expects $905,250 from it this fiscal year.
Subsidies
West Haven budgets $112,500 to repay Hunter Drive road work in Walmart's first months
The fiscal 2027 budget assumes a Walmart Supercenter opens in the last quarter of the fiscal year and splits its expected $225,000 in city sales tax between city operations and reimbursing developers for realigning Hunter Drive.
Contracts and spending
West Haven awards about $2.2 million in bids for Poulter Pond and Windsor Park
The council awarded three Poulter Pond contracts totaling $775,109.04 in August and, according to draft minutes, a $1,446,896.44 Windsor Park contract in October, after an August budget amendment corrected how Windsor Park was to be funded.