State law requires that the City provide an annual disclosure on funds transferred from a utility enterprise fund to any other fund. The City of Spanish Fork has budgeted for the transfer of 3.5% of each utility’s revenues from the utility’s retail rate to the general fund as a dividend to Spanish Fork taxpayers. This dividend is the result of the taxpayers’ investment in the City’s utility infrastructure. These Funds are used each year to help cover costs of important city services like police, fire, library, senior center, parks and recreation, and other city functions. The utility transfer helps keep property taxes low in Spanish Fork. If City utility services were provided by private utility vendors, these dividends would instead be paid to the private investor-owners. Because Spanish Fork taxpayers are the investor-owners, these dividends are used to offset what otherwise would be a significant increase in property tax rates. These transfers are of funds which cannot be defined as reasonable allocation of costs between funds.
A public hearing will be held on Tuesday, June 4, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. at the City Council Chambers located at Spanish Fork City Hall, 40 South Main Street, Spanish Fork, Utah. The public hearing will be to discuss the proposed dividend transfers in the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget. The fiscal year begins July 1, 2019 and ends June 30, 2020.
The full notice regarding the dividend transfers is available HERE.
Thank you for your support and involvement as a customer of Spanish Fork’s utilities.
