Raises, housing help, trail upgrades, even a Clean City Team
Mayor Erin Mendenhall proposes $512 million spending plan with no tax increase. Some residents will face higher utility bills.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
By: Tony Semerad
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who proposed three new city flags during a meeting of the Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, also unveiled her budget.
Salt Lake City‘s latest yearly spending plan is flat and has no planned tax increases — a function, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said, of the challenging times in the world.
Mendenhall used words like “steady” and “reliable” in proffering her new budget blueprint Tuesday evening, proposing $512 million in general fund spending on a wide range of city programs, nearly 6.7% more than the year before.
While pushing ahead with investments on public safety, employee wages, street repairs and affordable housing, she told the City Council this spending plan “is a nearly entirely flat budget” — born of the economic uncertainty faced by residents.
“Stock markets are volatile. Prices are increasing. Tariffs are fluctuating. The consumer sentiment index is in decline,” the mayor said. “I am committed to not increasing the burden our residents are already feeling due to federal pressures and global economic headwinds.”
Some residents, however, will face hikes in their utility bills starting in July as the city restructures its rates for water, sewer, stormwater and streetlights. The mayor said low water users would face about a $10 a month increase along with a new $3-a-month waste charge for most residential bins.
The plan’s 6.7% increase was driven “almost entirely” by inflation and rising costs of maintaining services and facilities — with the only expansion in spending coming for key elements of the city‘s new approach to public safety.
