The Carbon County Commission met on Wednesday, June 19 for their regularly scheduled meeting. Commissioners Casey Hopes and Larry Jensen were present, with Commissioner Tony Martines not in attendance for this meeting. Covered in this meeting included results from a study from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the appointment of Casey Hopes as Carbon County Commission Chair starting July 1.

Opening up the meeting, Dan Hinckley from UDOT presented results from an emerging area study done in collaboration with Carbon County. The study, which was based on a public survey and stakeholder opinion, determined five goals for the County which are:

• Provide Local and Regional Transportation Options
• Expand and Diversify Economic Growth
• Expand and Diversify Small Town Housing
• Improve Community Pride and Engagement
• Improve Overall Health and Wellbeing

Hinckley also spoke to the commissioners on how to find grants that would apply to the different goals for the area. Chris Hall, a planning engineer with UDOT spoke to the commission, sharing that he didn’t want the county to feel overwhelmed, and that if there was a grant the county wanted UDOT would be willing to help them obtain it.

The full emerging area study can be viewed here

Next on the agenda was the possible approval to renew the State Funded Grant, with Denna Fausett presenting on the matter. Fausett explained that she had moved some money around to different categories in the grant so that money would not be de-obligated and instead have more money reimbursed to the county. The motion was made to approve the grant with both commissioners voting in favor of the renewal.

After this, the Commissioners tackled the matter of the Indigent Defense Commission (IDC) grant for public defender services. Commissioner Hopes explained that he sits on the board for this grant so he would abstain from voting. The grant provides indigent defense services from all the towns of the county, and lumps them into one grant, regionalizing public defense efforts and helping to spread the workload.

Seth Marsing stepped up to the podium for the next item which was the potential approval of the 2024 certified tax rate. Marsing explained that the Certified tax rate is the tax rate that is charged to each taxpayer so that the taxing entity receives the same budget as they did the previous year. The rate also includes any new revenue from new homes built or other such developments.

Marsing also explained that” When you pay your taxes in the county, in general, approximately 26% to 27% of the taxes that you pay go to the county. The rest goes to other taxing entities.”

The Commissioners faced the decision to potentially take a lower value than the certified tax rate. This could be accomplished by lowering some of the four tax levies the county has: The county general levy, the municipal services fund, the state collecting and assessing levy and a health levy.

Commissioner Jensen shared his thoughts on the matter,” In essence, the decision here is we can fix our tax rate a little lower than we have the ability to normally do, and that seems to be our desire.

Commissioner Hopes added,” When the centrally assessed value goes down, that burden gets pushed onto our homeowners and local businesses; and that tax burden is increased to all of us. It’s important to note that these are just the county’s levies …But because of where we’re at, that’s why we are contemplating lowering our rate and taking less taxes this year than we did last year.”

After this discussion, the commission decided to set the levies for the year, setting the general levy at .002379, the health levy at .000116, the multicounty collecting and assessing levy at .000015 and the county municipal services levy at .001994. Rates which the Commissioners voted to approve.

Rounding out the meeting was the item to make Commission Hopes the County Commission Chair starting July 1, an item that was approved very quickly by the Commissioners.

The Commission’s next meeting will be held Wednesday, July 3, at 4:30 p.m. in the Carbon County Administration Building. For those unable to attend in person, a livestream of the meeting is available on YouTube and Facebook.