April 25, 2002 Still no property tax in this city By WINA STURGEON Standard-Examiner correspondent MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE - A river runs through it. So does a freeway. What does not run freely at all here are property taxes. The city of nearly 1,500 gets all its income from development, sales and use taxes. Residents and business owners pay no city property taxes on their land or homes. City leaders are projecting Marriott-Slaterville will have a revenue of $593,764 next fiscal year, City Attorney/Administrator Bill Morris said. That is tentatively also the amount of next fiscal year's budget, according to Mayor Keith H. Butler, whose frugality has earned him the joking nickname of "Scrooge." A public hearing on the city's budget is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. May 16 in the City Hall. But no one should expect frills to be on the expenditure list. "I've said since day one, if we don't need it, we won't buy it," Butler said. The city was incorporated in July 1999. More than three-quarters of the voters were in favor of incorporation, especially after the then township, with a self-supporting business tax base, became open to annexation when the Legislature gutted the Township Act. The promise made to residents that if incorporated, the city would not require property tax revenue, is an important one for Butler and his staff. Despite its businesses, the area is still 73 percent agricultural, with a minimum of one acre required for each home or dwelling unit. May 27, 2002 Marriott-Slaterville budget free of frills By WINA STURGEON_ Standard-Examiner correspondent MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE - The City Council for this financially frugal city approved Mayor Keith, Butler's $593,764 budget for the upcoming fiscal year with no debate and only a few changes. There were no city fee increases. Only one person showed up at the public meeting to discuss the budget. "There were no problems with the budget because there were no problems with shortfall or anything. All we did was to change a few numbers," City Administrator Bill Morris said. In one change, the council shifted $28,000 of unappropriated money to the capital projects fund. Marriott-Slaterville may be getting a new city hall in the next five years, which is why funds are being shifted to the capital projects budget, currently amounting to $160,964. Another change involved the cost of law enforcement services, which is contracted out to the Weber County Sheriff's Department. The city budgeted $104,000, but the actual expense amounted to $87,200. City officials put $14,000 of that difference into having plans prepared for the mandated EPA Storm Water Phase Two project, Morris explained. Phase Two is part of the regulations being worked on by the entire state for dealing with storm water, as part of the Federal Clean Water Act. The issue was mandated to states by the Environmental Protection Agency, but without funding. The states then mandated it to counties and cities. Cities must come up with their own funding and have five years to carry out the plans for clean water. "But we only have until the 8th of September to make decisions on some of this stuff," Butler said. Those documents will be turned in to Weber County, because the city intends to join with the county to share costs for the project. 32