Achievements

2022- Wasatch County, Utah

**  WTPA discovered back in 2018 that the County Assessor was not correctly assessing a large portion of the county properties in a timely manner. We have been working diligently with the Wasatch County Assessor, Council, Utah State Tax Commission, State Legislators including leadership, and the State Auditors office to get this malpractice corrected. We have yet been able to get Wasatch County assessed equitably.   Go here to learn more.

** Two of our members continue to serve on the Fire District Advisory Board (now renamed the Fire District Advisory Commission).

2021- Wasatch County, Utah

** The Wasatch School District started the Future Schools Advisory Committee, after their 2019 $150 MIL high school bond failed.  A few of our members, and WTPA chair, were asked to be on this committee, and to help do research and give input on the master plan. The WTPA chair, along with 4 very knowledgeable community leaders came up with an “Alternative Master Plan” towards the end of the process, when it was clear that the future schools committee did not produce options for the public. Go here to learn more.

2020- Wasatch County, Utah

** With COVID effecting public meetings, WTPA strongly encouraged Heber City Gov’t to have a higher quality video meeting alternative for the public. They had been notified long before COVID that their meeting audio recordings were hard to hear and no presentations could be seen.

** Wasatch School District would not release an Army Corps document for the North Fields property in January, and we appealed to the State Records Committee by August, and they agreed with us that it should be released. The WSD was going to take WTPA to district court to appeal the State Records Committee’s decision. Thankfully they released the document one week before the school board election.

** Informed the public on upcoming elections, and encouraged citizens to run.

2019- Wasatch County, Utah

** The Wasatch School District put a $150 MIL school bond on the ballot, and the WTPA had to GRAMA request documents not being released by the WSD. We then researched the costs, plans, locations and informed the public on their concerns. Bond failed. After WSD bond election, WTPA continued with GRAMA requests and researched info to get the information the citizens deserved before the bond election.

**  WTPA discovered that the County Assessor was not correctly assessing a large portion of the county properties in a timely manner, or following state code. In some cases, properties had not been assessed in 10 years. We alerted county council and the assessor of this problem and were trying to work within the system to  correct it.

** The Wasatch Fire District Advisory Board, with 2 WTPA members as citizens at large, continue helping guide the WFD to determine the future needs of the district, and how it will be paid for.

2018- Wasatch County, Utah

** The Wasatch Fire District Advisory Board, with 2 WTPA members as citizens at large, helped guide the WFD to do a master plan, determine the needs of the district, and how it will be paid for.

**Educated the public on Wasatch County’s Amendment to the General Plan which became a ballot item for the Nov 2018 election. Prop 10 was voted down by the citizens by 62%, which meant it overturned the county council’s decision to amend the General Plan to allow a rezone.

** Informed the public on upcoming elections, and encouraged citizens to run.

2017- Wasatch County, Utah

** The Wasatch Fire Chief asked WTPA for assistance in preparing the district, and the public, for a fire tax increase to stay ahead of the massive county growth. A Fire District Advisory Board was established by the Fire District SSD, and  local citizens who are experienced fire chiefs and WTPA members were appointed. The advisory board has helped the Fire District set up a 5 year plan, and have ordered a needs assessment to aid them in determining the most critical needs of the Fire District while they consolidate the Jordanelle Assessment Area into the Wasatch Fire District. This will be a multiyear effort.

** Notified the State Auditor that the Parks and Recreation SSD had not done a proper budget hearing in December, which has also happened in previous years,  for their 2017 budget.  The State Auditor’s office notified the Parks and Rec director that his budget was not approved correctly, froze their accounts until it was corrected, and the P &R dept had to get all expenditures approved by auditor’s office in the meantime.  The Parks and Rec SSD re-notified the public correctly, supplied proper budgets for the public, and held another budget hearing.

2016- Wasatch County, Utah

** Since the Wasatch School District denied our GRAMA request for info on the superintendent hiring process, by saying it was private information, we had to appeal that decision to the State Records Committee. The #1 GRAMA attorney in the state also decided to help us pro-bono since he felt we had a very strong case. The State Records Committee agreed with us, and ordered WSD to release most of our request. They remarked that WSD had a “colossal transparency failure”.  See all the supt. candidates’ applications and other info the school district did not think the public had a right to see, and the process we had to go through to fight for this information, at this link: WTPA -Wasatch School District page.

2015- Wasatch County, Utah

** Investigated, compiled, printed, and distributed a public information flyer for the $62 million school bond election to provide much more detailed information so the public could make a more informed decision.  Some of our conclusions in the flyer have already happened, only 6 months later.

2014- Wasatch County, Utah 

** November’s proposed $24 million Aquatics Center Bond was promoted by Wasatch County Parks & Rec Dept and advertised questionable fiscal impacts to the public. WTPA conducted countless hours of research for a year and a half on state and national pools. Our findings contradicted the county’s numbers , which changed 4 times. WTPA also waged a vigorous door to door campaign to share our research with Wasatch County residents, and developed a special website just for aquatics center information. After the public learned about our research, the aquatics center was voted down by the public, even though there was an expensive, rigorous advertising campaign waged FOR the pool.

** Heber Airport Board- WTPA did a presentation for the Heber City Council in April in which we cited some of our concerns of conflicts of interest and bylaw violations in hopes of promoting better management and cost effective policies.

** Jordanelle Special Service District has been on our radar for years, and some WTPA members have been vital to keeping us informed on all issues concerning this area. Most recently, on a front page cover story in the Sunday Salt Lake Tribune, and the latest lawsuit filed against JSSD and Wasatch County Council.

** WTPA had to notify certain public entities about the open meetings act, and complying with the public meeting notice requirements.

2013- Wasatch County, Utah 

** July’s Attorney General’s letter on findings on the Heber Light & Power’s violations concerning board pay in lieu of insurance benefit.

** Sept- Oct- Successful referendum petition against the Wasatch Fire Board’s 76% tax increase. It was supposed to go on the November 2014 ballot for voters to decide, but the Utah Tax Commission informed Wasatch Co that they did not do a proper tax increase. So our petition was voided just like their tax increase.

** Worked with the Wasatch School District and the Utah State GRAMA ombudsman to have the WSD release the  full 2014 budget to us to share with the public.

2012- Wasatch County, Utah 

 ** Established the foundation and infrastructure of the Wasatch Taxpayers Association.

** Set up our founding board for 6 months to get a productive association started.

**Completed the Bylaws to govern the WTPA.

**Developed a professional website that is the distribution site for information about taxes and government in Wasatch County.

** Became well known to City, County and Special Service Districts, promoting transparency and good government.

** We were able to encourage several entities to upload their board packets to the web (Heber City, Wasatch School District)

** Encouraged Wasatch School District to correct their accounting procedures in an attempt to comply with state law.

** Wasatch Fire District (Wasatch Co. Council) terminated their board pay this year. More county and city boards should follow their lead.

** GRAMA Requested local documents and shared them on this website for the public good.

** Communicated to our membership with monthly meetings and news emails.

**  Many taxpayers have donated to support our efforts to continue our work…

** Networked the citizens, groups, and taxpayers of Wasatch County to become better informed and work together to solve the generational issues that affect Wasatch County.

We are looking forward to a productive 2016! Please join our efforts today!

Wasatch Taxpayers Association appreciates any, and all, donations to further the cause of transparency and accountability in Wasatch County. Please take a moment and help this ALL volunteer group.                   Donate tab above.  Or join us today for a yearly membership. Thank You!