Recent changes in taxation and procurement from the legislature

Every year, the Utah Legislature passes hundreds of bills, with many of them affecting the state’s special districts in some way. Also every year, we go through all of the bills to gauge their impact and report back to you about it.

There were two main areas of impact — procurement and taxation changes. We wanted to review these areas again and write about the bills and what impact they have, especially as the legislature will meet again in early 2024. Here’s a look at each bill in these areas and what they mean now for your special district.

Public Contract Requirements
This was called an “anti-boycott” bill in the media, and it prohibits a public entity from entering into a contract with a company that engages in certain boycott actions. Every company that contracts with a state entity must acknowledge in writing that they are not part of a specific boycott.

The boycotted industries affected include fossil fuel, firearms, timber, mining, and agriculture. It also prevents contracts from taking place with groups that boycott due to environmental emission standards beyond legal requirements, diverse hiring criteria, or access to women’s or transgender persons’ health care.

Local Government Construction Project Bid Notices
This new law removes the requirement for a governmental entity to post notice of a public works project or building improvement in five public places. Instead, it requires that a class A notice be posted on the State Procurement Notice website at least five days before opening the bids for the project.

Local District Property Tax Amendments
During the session, the UASD worked closely with Rep. Karen Peterson, who sponsored this bill, to remove requirements for local districts and trustees to issue general obligation bonds without an election or proposing a property tax increase.

The law as it stands now simply requires a member of the special district’s appointed board to report any proposed property tax increases or bond issuance without an election to their respective legislative bodies, so they can give an opinion of those matters.

Special Service District Bonds Amendments
This one is tied closely to the law we detail above. Four years ago, legislation was passed that placed a sunset date on issuing special service district bonds secured by federal mineral lease payments, use of bond proceeds, bond resolution, or non-impairment of appropriation formulas. This change was not noticed until Uintah County started consolidating some of its special service districts in 2022 and ran into concerns with their issuance.

This new amendment deletes the Dec. 31, 2020 sunset date and adds language clarifying that “no bond issuance shall be invalid or impaired solely because the bonds were issued under this section during the period beginning January 1, 2021 and ending May 3, 2023.”

Learn more about the latest laws
If you want to read more about laws that might affect your special district, our website has the roundup of these bills.