West Valley City Debt

Today I have decided to tackle a difficult topic within this blog and hopefully shed some light on the City's current situation. Recent hardships during these tough economic times have in many ways been linked to individuals, institutions, and governments borrowing more money than they can afford. Therefore I have compiled some select City financial data to help assess the overall economic health of West Valley City and try to put it into perspective. Also as my role as Councilman and chairman of the West Valley City audit committee I feel that it is important to crunch through these numbers occasionally in order to be a wise steward of public dollars.

The appraised market value of West Valley City is pushing up close to ten billion dollars or about $77,000 of City infrastructure per resident. Individual property taxes have a rate of approximately 1.398% which over the years has helped in building and servicing the City. As a City we have an operating budget of around 67 million dollars. During the good years the City has been able to put some funds in a reserve account that currently has a balance just over 7 million dollars or 10.59% of the operating revenue. Currently I feel that this is an excellent amount of reserve funds, but unfortunately those funds will probably be called upon during the next couple of years to fill some holes within the budget due to lagging sales tax revenues. The goal would be to replenish these funds as soon as tax revenue generators like the renovated Valley Fair Mall start to bring in more shoppers and tax revenue and as the overall economy improves.

The total debt for West Valley City continues on a downward trend and is just over 109 million dollars. The annual debt service payments on the outstanding debt is around 8 millions dollars which is approximately 8% of the operating expenditures. Each resident's share of this calculated debt would be about $875 per person or about 5% of the average per capita income. This number might seem a little bit high until you remember that Utah has the lowest per capita income in the nation based on the fact that in comparison we have many more children in our population.

These relative strength of these numbers has helped the City achieve unusually high credit ratings which has saved us money in the long run. Having this information in mind is helpful in setting the priorities and goals of the City. We should strive to make our budgets lean and reduce debt while continuing the high levels of service and opportunities within West Valley City.

I hope that these facts and figures are insightful. As always please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns: corey@coreyrushton.com

National Appointment

The following press release was issued by the National League Of Cities in Washington D.C. and locally by West Valley City public relations department:

West Valley City Councilmember Corey Rushton Appointed to National League of Cities’

First Tier Suburbs Council Steering Committee

Washington, DC – West Valley City At-Large Councilmember Corey Rushton was appointed to the National League of Cities’ (NLC) 2010 First Tier Suburbs Council Steering Committee. The First Tier Suburbs Council addresses the unique set of challenges located outside of central cities and inside the ring of developing suburbs and rural areas. The Council explores effective local solutions, supports research, provides guidance and recommendations to city officials, and allows city officials to network with each other.

The First Tier Suburbs Council Steering Committee provides leadership on issues including neighborhood and commercial revitalization, regional cooperation, housing and transportation.
“It is an honor to be appointed to this select group of leaders from across the country,” said Councilman Rushton. “This gives West Valley City a national voice in helping shape policy that is important to our community.”

The 2010 chair of the First Tier Suburbs Council is Garland, Tex., Council Member Douglas Athas. Working as this year’s vice chairs are Jim Woodward, mayor, Englewood, CO, Edward Schock, council member, Riverside, OH, and Joe Garcia, councilmember, Monrovia, CA.

The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.

Cease to Idle

Just a quick update of a few important items of note that recently transpired. First off the Utah League of Cities and Towns welcomed former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani to the State as he addressed legislative and municipal leaders as part of the local officials day at the State Legislature. I was interested to hear his insights about the crime reduction and revitalization that has occurred in New York City over the past 20 years. Like Mayor Guiliani, I am a big believer in the "broken window" theory that essentially encourages officials and residents to quickly take care of the little things like graffiti, trash, and vandalism. This sends a strong message about the character of the community and thus criminals become less bold to commit other, more serious crimes. He also spoke about leadership qualities in difficult times that was both informative and interesting to relate to.

I am also pleased to report that the West Valley City Council unanimously approved the resolution that I sponsored to discourage excess car idling in the City. Special thanks go out to City Attorney Richard Catten who was able to take a mash-up of several concepts and assist me in authoring this resolution. The air quality this winter has been particularly nasty and it is a step in the right direction to publicly declare that idling cars creates unnecessary pollution and health risks. Several West Valley City elementary schools have taken similar pledges and we need to get everyone in the habit of doing the little things, like turning your car off when not in use, to help keep the public good of clean air in abundance. This resolution is also a good step forward for our legislative agenda as somewhere in the 1970s environmental policy became linked with energy policy. By demonstrating this positive step forward with the environment West Valley City will have more leverage in securing energy efficient grants and transportation funding at the State and Federal level.

For a little more background on this you can read the Deseret News article at:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705360084/West-Valley-City-to-discourage-car-idling.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705361435/West-Valley-leaders-ask-residents-to-be-Idle-Free.html