2022 Tax Increase

The District is asking for a tax increase for the following reasons:

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          1. Staffing our Ladder at Station 66 at three personnel. This ladder has been staffed at two since

              2010 – this is dangerously low, especially for a ladder truck which has multiple, technical tasks on                    structure fires and other calls. This Ladder is also a Heavy Rescue under a County Agreement with                    other departments (namely, Ogden and Riverdale for vehicles and staffing). Per this Agreement, the                  District must maintain nine Technical Rescue personnel, with the expectation of three personnel

              per day.

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          2. Adding a Division Chief over Emergency Medical Services (EMS). As a First Responder and                                  Paramedic agency, keeping up with certifications, training, education, changes in the industry,                            equipment needs, and more, is a taxing job. Having a Chief dedicated to EMS will greatly enhance our                skillset in this area and meet the needs of our most frequent incident type.

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          3. A 3% pay adjustment for our personnel, and a change in step-in-grade raises from 2.5% to 3%                          across  the board. Each year we compare our pay to other departments and adjust salaries as                          needed. Most years the adjustment is small, but this year we needed a slightly larger adjustment to                  stay competitive. Important to note, we are not attempting to be higher paying than others, but                          instead to be in the average. This assures we keep our highly trained personnel by not losing them                    to other departments.

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We want our citizens to know that it is our desire to keep this impact as minimal as possible. We believe, and history has borne out, that growth in Weber County is good. In fact, growth typically covers our needs. As we receive our Certified Tax Rate (CTR) in June of each year, we don’t currently know what growth will be like or the impact it will have on our CTR next year. Our current CTR is the lowest it’s been since 2009, and we’d love to keep it that way! We are very hopeful that the CTR number will come in lower than expected and noticed by the County.