In 2020, activists frequently gathered in Salt Lake City to protest police shootings and call for racial justice, sometimes defying curfews and occasionally clashing with officers in demonstrations that turned violent.
By the end of last year, COVID-19 deaths in Utah had topped 1,000 and the number of cases in the state was close to 300,000. An economic downturn accompanying the coronavirus pandemic caused workers to lose their jobs, residents to struggle to pay their mortgage or rent, businesses to shut down and social service agencies and charities to scramble to provide food to everyone who needed it.
But Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall believes better days are ahead. Her optimism shows in a proposed 2021-2022 budget that will allow the city “to rise above the challenges of the last fiscal year.”
The proposed budget includes a general fund of $350 million that will cover essential services, which is about $24 million, or 3.75%, more than in fiscal 2021. Total expenses in all funds top $1.3 trillion, an increase of more than $500 million.
Mendenhall’s spending plan does not make any staffing or service cuts or request a tax increase.
The mayor said being “conservative and judicious” last year put the city in a relatively strong financial position. The increase in the general fund is based on projected increases in sales tax and revenue from the federal American Rescue Plan, an economic recovery package implemented to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the city’s increased bonding capacity will make millions of dollars of long-awaited capital improvements possible, according to Mendenhall.
“We face a truly unprecedented opportunity, one born of historic challenges and fiscal responsibility, but we have the chance to make a once-in-a-generation investment in our City and its people,” she said in a May 4 budget presentation to the City Council. “No one is going to give us a roadmap. But I believe that as Salt Lakers, as westerners, we’re ready to consider this last year a valuable education and pull together as we move ahead to make this place more welcome, dynamic, and secure for all its residents.”
The mayor’s budget projects an increase of $8.8 million in sales tax in the coming fiscal year, revenue that would be in line with the amount in 2019-2020. Other projected revenue increases include $4.7 million from building permits and nearly $1 million from public utility rate increases.
In addition, the $87 million the city will receive from the American Rescue Plan will be a tremendous opportunity to invest equitably in our communities, Mendenhall said, adding that many Salt Lake City residents continue to struggle from the economic and health effects of the “harrowing past year.”
“Our comprehensive plan will not only take care of our city’s fiscal health and the well-being of our city family; it will help spark the post-pandemic renaissance through pathways to employment, invigoration of business and cultural districts, neighborhood revitalization, and more,” she said.
“I know that many Salt Lake City residents continue to struggle from the economic and health effects of the harrowing past year,” she said.
A few revenue sources are projected to bring in less than they did in the 2020-2021 budget year. Revenue from business licenses is expected to go down by $1.6 million and interest expense by $660,000. Because of decreased traffic, the amount of revenue from parking meters and parking fines continues to go down.
The City Council is scheduled to hold a virtual budget hearing on June 1 and vote on a final version later in the month. Fiscal 2022 begins July 1.
Policing initiatives
The effects of the 2020 events are reflected in Mendenhall’s spending plan for the capital city.
Following the protests in Salt Lake City and across the nation, the mayor and city council created the Racial Equity in Policing Commission last July and the body’s initiatives are part of the recommended budget.
One of the initiatives calls for the city to spend $450,000 to hire six more social workers – three of them for six months and the other three for 10 months – for the Police Department’s Community Connection Center to respond to calls involving people having a mental health crisis. The new hires would be added to a staff of 10 social workers and one office assistant.
“There are emergency situations where a trained mental health professional is a more appropriate first responder than a police officer, but right now we don’t have enough social workers to cover every shift,” Mendenhall said. “It’s a program that’s been incredibly successful and the department and the City’s residents will be better for its expansion.”
Other recommendations are to allocate $200,000 for additional equity, inclusion and diversity training for police officers and $20,000 for the Peer Court program to offer alternative ways for youth to be held accountable for their actions outside of the criminal justice system.
At a May 18 work session that included a briefing on the 2021-2022 budget, City Council members said they supported hiring more social workers.
Councilwoman Ana Valdemoros said she would like to see a 24-hour, seven-day service and Councilman Chris Wharton suggested finding a way to increase the number of social workers to 20.
“The one thing I hear on both sides of this debate on policing and police reform is that police are having to respond to way more situations than they’ve ever had to in the past,” Wharton said.
The council members also discussed an item that was not included in the budget, a proposal to create a new classification of community service officer.
The Matrix Consulting Group, which was retained by Salt Lake City, suggested hiring 20 of these civilian employees to handle lower-priority calls for service. Those calls potentially could involve transient problems; parking complaints; abandoned vehicles; and cold case thefts and burglaries.
Based on 2019 data, Matrix estimated that about 14,000 calls a year a year could be diverted to community service officers, giving sworn officers more than 26,000 hours to respond to more serious calls.
Chair Amy Fowler, noting that thousands of calls a year involve traffic accidents that could be handled by civilians, suggested doing a pilot program.
Housing and homelessness
Mendenhall also calls for putting more than $11 million into building affordable housing and tackling homelessness issues. She wants the city’s Redevelopment Agency to build or preserve 350 affordable housing units by combining fiscal 2022 revenues with existing resources. At least 116 of the units would be rented at rates affordable to those making half or less of the area’s median income.
More than $4.4 million in federal funding would be used for housing programs that provide rent assistance for people with AIDS/HIV, make small loans to do repairs on homes or make them accessible, give down payment assistance and provide emergency rental assistance for those experiencing homelessness or to prevent homelessness.
In addition, nearly $1 million would go toward the Community Commitment Program, an outreach effort designed to provide safe and accessible outdoor spaces and helping people experiencing homelessness to access resources.
Bill Tibbetts, of Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, which provides food and services to those in need, said it’s good to see the city invest $11 million in addressing the housing affordability crisis and the homelessness that crisis helps to produce.
“Hopefully city leaders will find a way to invest in housing even more than that this year, given the fact that Salt Lake City Government is receiving over $84 million in federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act,” Tibbets said in an email. “Those funds could be used in a lot of ways – including purchasing underused motels to convert in supportive housing for unsheltered homeless people.”
Mendenhall has said that she will share details in June about her plan to use the federal money.
Environmental and capital projects
Other proposed funding centers on environmental efforts including $325,000 for the implementation of a community renewable energy program, $200,000 for a renewable energy and climate equity plan; and $85,000 for additional air quality monitors.
“The city will develop a public facing dashboard and a mobile application that residents can use to plan outdoor activities according to current air quality conditions,” Mendenhall said.
Her budget also includes plans for a new Community Reinvestment Bond, which will allow for $50 million in capital projects. Among them are using $10 million to convert the old Raging Waters Park on city property at 1200 W. 1700 South into a premiere regional park. Historic buildings – such as the buildings at Allen Park, Warm Springs Park in the Marmalade District and the Fisher Mansion in Poplar Grove – would be shored up so they could be reutilized.
In addition, Mendenhall’s proposed budget would use funds to tackle noise pollution in westside communities caused by trains traveling through them. Her plan is to make infrastructure improvements at train crossings and quiet all train horns.
Other proposed capital projects are to complete the next phases of the Foothills Trails System master plan; make improvements to Westside Neighborhood Park; finish the street transformation of 600 North; buy equipment to reutilize wood from downed trees; and provide multilingual signage in parks and open spaces.
