CACHE VALLEY – County Executive George Daines delivered a fine-tuned lecture on Oct. 14 to members of Cache County Council about budget realities.
With the matter-of-fact precision of a banker, Daines explained why Cache County is facing a budget crisis and ways to get out of it.
The bottom line, he said, is that the county’s expenditures since 2019 have grown by 76 percent while its revenue growth has failed to keep pace, resulting in a projected $7.6 million deficit for 2026.
Those expenditures have also outpaced inflation since 2019, which stands at about 26 percent, and the county’s population growth of 11.5 percent.
To make matters worse, he said, the county has allowed its millage levy to drop by 32 percent since 2019.
A millage levy, or millage rate, is the tax rate used to calculate property taxes, which are based on a property’s assessed value. One mill is equal to $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The overall millage rate directly determines the amount of property tax that is owed.
Since taking office on Sept. 16, Daines has been wrestling with the county’s budget that has accumulated a general fund deficit of nearly $10 million over the past three years.
In a joint efforts with County Auditor Matt Fund and department heads, Daines has recommended a total of $2.8 million in budget cuts.
The most controversial of those proposed cuts is totally defunding the Cache County Library at 15 North Main in Providence to the tune of $250,000 a year.
The rationale for that proposed budget reduction, he said, is that 80 percent of county residents are already being taxed to support various municipal libraries. In the interest of fairness, Daines questions whether those residents should be double-taxed to provide services to 20 percent of Cache residents not served by those municipal libraries.
Daines added that he expects to be able to recommend additional budget cuts to council members at their next meeting on Oct. 28.
Later in the same meeting, council chair Sandi Goodlander formally announced Cache County’s intent to levy a property tax rate increase of 10 percent next year, which would generate more than $3.7 million in new revenue to fund inflationary increases in personnel and pubic safety expenses.
That additional revenue, combined with the $2.8 million in budget cuts recommended by Daines, would still leave Cache County with a budget deficit exceeding $1 million.
Before moving on to other business, Goodlander praised Daines’ efforts to deal with the budget shortfall.
Other concerns that must be addressed prior to the council members adopting a completed budget in the next few weeks include the issue of their own compensation levels for 2026.