BOUNTIFUL — Imagine a modern city where juvenile crime has dropped 50 percent over three years, the quality of service is high, taxes are relatively low and there is little outstanding debt.
You won't have to image too hard, says Mayor John Cushing, because that place is Bountiful.
In his annual "state of the city" address Wednesday night, Cushing assured a dozen Bountiful residents that the condition of the body politic is hale and hearty.
He said local residents enjoy good roads, outstanding recreation programs, an efficient waste disposal operation, effective policing and a reliable city-owned power system that offers low rates.
But the mayor also said the city faces its share of challenges in the years ahead from electrical deregulation, private sector competition and from slow growth in the sales, property and franchise tax revenues that pay for the city's general services.
"Power deregulation may allow people the opportunity of deciding whether they want to continue with our (city) power system," Cushing said.
"We may face the risk of losing our best customers in terms of load and price, leaving us with only customers that are traditionally the most expensive and least profitable to serve," the mayor noted.
"Additional clean air regulations increase the cost of producing power at the same time an unprecedented attack on hydropower, a clean, renewable source of electrical energy, has been launched," he added. "The Sierra Club and others have spent and will continue to spend millions trying to remove dams, all in the name of returning us to 'nature.' "
Cushing said that while he considers himself "a friend of the environment" most (power) regulations implemented during his term of office "have simply added costs to our services" without contributing to an improved environmental quality of life.
The city's recreation center and golf course are facing new competition from the private sector, he said, and Bountiful officials constantly are being urged to contract for a variety of private sector services such as public safety dispatching, road paving, fire service and park maintenance.
"Our sales tax base continues to lag behind the statewide average," Cushing told residents, and declining power and gas rates have cut into the city's utility franchise tax collections.
With the city mostly "built-out," there has been no growth in property tax revenue to offset the increased costs of providing municipal services, the mayor said.
"In order to become a self-sustaining community, we will have to find a way over the long term to match the expenditure needs of (city) departments with the revenue to pay for them," he added.
Despite concerns, Cushing said Bountiful residents share his own pride and optimism in their community as they move into a new century.
"Our pioneer heritage has taught us that with courage, integrity, vision and hard work, we can constantly be better then we are now," he said.