(KCPW News) Supporters of incorporating Millcreek Township have released a new fiscal analysis they say more accurately reflects what the proposed city’s budget would look like. It says the city would have a surplus of more than a million dollars next year, with revenues coming in 8 percent higher than expenditures. That’s good news to East Millcreek resident Leslie Riddle, who sits on the township’s planning commission.
“There’s been so much fear that incorporation would in fact increase taxes, but it doesn’t,” she says. “It would put us in a far more healthy fiscal position than if we stayed with the county, and I think that’s an important fact to understand.”
The study, which was commissioned by the Future of Millcreek Association, relies on Salt Lake County’s projections for growth in local option sales tax, which is 8.4 percent in 2012. That’s significantly higher than the one percent growth that was used in the incorporation feasibility study released last year.
Incorporation opponent Roger Dudley doesn’t buy the new analysis, saying it incorrectly assumes Salt Lake County’s sales tax projections apply specifically to Millcreek, adding it has the lowest percentage of commercial property in the county.
“This is a desperate attempt to put numbers out that draw a conclusion that only they the proponents want you to think is in shape. It lacks credibility, it is not independent by any nature,” says Dudley.
Voters in Millcreek Township will decide whether to incorporate in the November election.
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