By Doug Robinson , Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 2 2012
It’s “only” $4 a month.
That’s what proponents of a tax increase in Orem are saying.
Or “only” $48 a year.
Who can’t afford 48 bucks?
That’s “only” about 13 cents a day.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
Actually, everything is wrong with that logic.
Maybe you saw the story about [...]

By Antone Clark
Standard-Examiner
Correspondent
UTOPIA, the financially beleaguered Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, will run out of operating revenue by the end of September, according to the group’s executive director.
Pressed on the group’s financial status during an Orem City Council meeting this week, Todd Marriott said UTOPIA will be out of operating funds by the end of this [...]

Deseret News by Joey Ferguson, Tuesday, August 14, 2012
SALT LAKE CITY — Proposed revisions to the way state sales tax is collected and distributed could mean some Utah cities and towns will lose out on revenue.
Under the current system, sales tax revenue is split 50-50 between the municipality where the sale happened, or point of [...]

By Jared Page , Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — UTOPIA has spent nearly all of its $185 million in bond proceeds, though only 59 percent of that has gone toward building infrastructure for the municipal fiber-optics network, a legislative audit found.
The audit, conducted by the Office of the Utah Legislative Auditor General at the request [...]

The Utah Legislative Auditor General released an audit of the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) today. The audit, according to The Deseret News, “blasts UTOPIA’s planning, use of bond funds.” Below is the summary of the audit from the Office of the Legislative Auditor General. The full audit can be viewed by clicking here.
The [...]

Probe • Agency says mistakes are in past, new plan in place to move forward.

By Vince Horiuchi and Steven Oberbeck
The Salt Lake Tribune

The Salt Lake Tribune Utopia director of network engineering Roger Timmerman shows the company’s fiber-optic hardware at their corporate office Tuesday June 12. A Legislative Auditor General’s report issued Aug. 1 blasts the [...]

Bond elections should be held in November, when voters are expecting to vote on bond measures, not June when voter turnout is low. Voter turnout increases 2-8 times during the November election, and measures such as the $29 million recreation bond that Draper is proposing should be decided by as many voters as possible.
In addition, [...]

Springville wants to increase their city tax levy by over 50% to pay for a $21 million “Taj Mahal” recreation center.

Voters will decide whether the old Granite High School property will be purchased by the city and turned into a civic center.

Residents of 35 local governments in Utah will find bad news arriving in their mailboxes during the next week: proposed property tax hikes, announced in annual property tax valuation notices.