CACHE COUNTY – Before members of the Cache County Council make any decision on imposing a local option sales tax, local mayors want to be heard on that issue.
The County Council is scheduled to vote on imposing a county option sales tax to fund public safety as a component of adopting its 2025 annual county budget on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
But the members of the Cache County Council of Governments – all 19 mayor in the county, plus County Executive David Zook – want the Cache County Council members to consider collecting a .30 percent sales tax allowed under State Code 59-12-2216 for local transportation improvements.
During the 2024 general session of the Legislature, state lawmakers granted counties the flexibility to allow the use of transportation funds for public safety in Third- through Sixth-Class counties.
In an Oct. 24 letter to County Council Chair David Erickson, the COG members suggested that flexibility was likely inspired by the needs of smaller rural counties where transportation capacity issues were not a major problem.
As the largest Third-Class County in the state, they argued, Cache County has significant transportation needs in its local system and those demands are expected to accelerate with projected growth.
“This is important,” the COG letter stated, “because Cache County is the only county in the state where more vehicle-miles are traveled on a daily basis on local roads (city and county) rather than on state roads.”
Due to “exploding construction costs,” the members of the COG expressed strong support for the .30 percent sale tax for transportation and requested the opportunity to be involved in the process before the implementation of any new county local option sales tax.
Clarkston Mayor Craig Hidalgo will address the issue before the Cache County Council at their final scheduled meeting of the year on Dec. 10.
In addition to Hidalgo – who serves as the chair of the Cache County Council of Government – the members of the COG include Mayors Bryan Cox, David Wood, Matt Leak, Stephanie Miller, Jeff Hall, Holly Daines, Ed Buist, David Hair, Mike Benson, Larry Jacobsen, Lindsay Peterson, Larry Johnson, Kathleen Alder, Paul Erickson, Jason Thompson, Kris Monson, Lynn Payne, Thomas Bailey and County Executive David Zook.
The COG was formally organized in 2009 to participate in the voter approved local option sales tax road project prioritization process as defined in Utah State Code 59-12-2217.
The meeting of the Cache County Council is scheduled for 5 p.m. on the Council Chambers of the Cache County Historic Courthouse.
The Cache County Historic Courthouse is located at 199 North Main in Logan.