CACHE COUNTY – In a special meeting of the Cache County Council on Dec. 17, the members of the panel addressed themselves to fine-tuning the budget for 2024 and finalizing the allocation of funds from their pending 0.3 percent sales increase in 2025.
The impact of Resolution 2024-30 was explained by Finance Director Wes Bingham, who listed two dozen final changes to the county’s 2024 budget ending on Dec. 31.
After a public hearing in which no comments were received, that resolution was unanimously approved by council members with minimal discussion.
The council members then directed their attention to amending Resolution 2024-28, which authorized a county option sales tax slated to take effect on April 1, 2025 to meet public safety needs.
While most of the details of the 2025 budget had been worked out in the council meeting on Dec. 10, a decision on the allocation of funds from the proposed 0.3 percent sales tax increase still remained.
At their Dec. 10 meeting, Mayor Craig Hidalgo of Clarkston, representing the Cache County Council of Governments, made a pitch for a slice of those new tax revenues to go to transportation needs.
Council member Barbara Tidwell responded to that presentation by amending the text of Resolution 2024-28 to earmark a portion of those revenues for transportation during that previous meeting, but specific percentages remained to be worked out.
Bingham estimated that the new sales tax would yield $6.6 million in 2025 – from April 1 to Dec. 31 – and $8.8 million in its first full year in 2026.
Council member Sandi Goodlander made a motion to allocate 25 percent of the new sales tax revenue to transportation needs starting in 2025, which was unanimously approved.
The county finance director estimated that decision would yield $4.95 million for public safety and $1.65 million for transportation needs in 2025.
Those funds will now be included in the Cache County budget for 2025 of more than $121 million, including $3.4 allocated to the Logan Cache Airport Authority and airport capital projects.