Draper's redevelopment money works. The city has not finished spending it

Draper's case for tax increment financing deserves to be stated in the city's own terms, because it is strong. The city's economic development page calls Draper one of the best-managed cities in Utah, with more than 1,000 businesses 1. The FrontRunner project area around the commuter rail station began in 2012 with a base value of $6,055,340; by tax year 2025 it stood at $589,598,213, an increase of 9,637 per cent 2. The agency's consultant told the council on Aug. 18 that each project area "had far outpaced what any natural development would have been" 3.

The mechanics are defensible. Taxing entities keep their base-year revenue and only the growth above it is diverted, for a fixed term — FrontRunner through 2035, South Mountain through 2041 — after which every entity collects on the full assessed value 2. In fiscal 2026 the agency received $7,178,967 in increment and expects $75,566,696 more across the remaining life of its three collecting areas 2. Nor is it a slush fund: the adviser told the council the money is "not general fund monies" but "very specifically geared towards economic development" 4.

But two things can be true at once, and the second is the timing. On Aug. 18 the City Council adopted Resolution 26-39 on a 5-0 vote, raising the city property tax rate from 0.000902 to 0.001128 — about 25 per cent — for roughly $2.7 million a year, and still appropriated $3,295,000 from fund balance 5. The reasoning is not frivolous: property taxes cover less than half of police and fire costs, sales tax flattened after 2023, and before 2024 the rate had not moved in 17 years 6. Mayor Troy Walker told the council he does not like raising property taxes and that this one would not balance the budget without a fund-balance draw 3.

Set that against the balance: at the same meeting the consultant put combined project-area balances at "almost $31 million" 3. He put a clock on part of it: Sand Hills, East Bangerter and West Freeway "only had two years remaining to expend funds or commit funds before money would be lost" 3. Those three hold $8,023,892 — $4,438,827, $3,409,491 and $175,574 — all unaudited as of June 30 29.

"Lost" is the accurate word. Under S.B. 228, effective May 6, a project area dissolves when its dormancy period ends, the agency may extend that once for no more than two years, and an agency holding funds at the end "shall return a proportionate share of the unexpended funds to each taxing entity" 7. Draper knows how that ends: the Gateway area was dissolved on Oct. 21, 2025, with a $0 balance 2.

Who gave the money up is on the record too, and it is not mostly the city. In South Mountain the participation level is 100 per cent for Salt Lake County, Canyons School District, Draper City and the county library 2. The school district's interlocal agreement commits its full increment for twenty years; the agency returns 30 per cent a year and pays $77,228 annually for ten years into a performance-based education programme 8. In FrontRunner the district and county give 70 per cent and the city 75 2.

South Mountain most needs a public answer. The area was created in 2018 to facilitate Pluralsight's global headquarters, "which was anticipated to create 2,464 jobs in a ten-year period", under an agreement that conditions payments on performance and requires new jobs at 110 per cent of the county's average wage 28. On July 15, 2025, the board was told the job and wage targets in that participation agreement were not being met, and directed staff to negotiate, with options from restructuring to dissolving the area 11. More than a year later the 2026 report still puts the area's purpose in the future tense, projects $25,656,442 more through 2041, and records no change to those terms 2.

That is the decision worth objecting to, and it belongs to the Community Reinvestment Agency board — Mayor Walker and the five council members. On Aug. 18 the board adopted the 2026 report 4-1, Councilmember Tasha Lowery voting no with no reason recorded, and left a spending plan for "the coming months" 49. Adopting a report is routine; adopting it while $8 million carries a two-year expiry and a performance finding more than a year old goes unanswered is a decision to let the calendar decide.

Three things would change our mind. A dated schedule committing the three dormant balances to named projects before the clock runs — not intentions listed in a report. A public status report on the South Mountain benchmarks, ending in an amended agreement with enforceable terms or in dissolution. And disclosure, area by area, of how much increment goes to developer incentives and how much to public infrastructure; in the fiscal 2026 agency budget, $3,850,266 of the FrontRunner division sits in a single "Agreement" line 10.

None of this argues for ending tax increment in Draper. In FrontRunner it did what it promised: values rose, employers came, and the entities get the whole base back in 2035. It argues that a city asking residents for $2.7 million more a year owes them a finished ledger — on the $75,566,696 still to be diverted, and on the year the school district's share comes back.