OREM, Utah – One of Utah’s largest water districts has voted to raise property taxes to fund some major infrastructure projects.

The Central Utah Water Conservancy District board voted unanimously Wednesday to increase property taxes by 0.0004%, which would be about $6.62 more per year for a home with an average price of about $602,000.

“It helps us with rising inflation. Some of the projects we’re looking at have actually increased 20, 30, 40 percent in the last year,” said Gene Shawcroft, the district’s general manager. “We continue to have aging infrastructure. They know full well we have growth rates that are beyond imagination, and those folks are going to need a drink of water.”

The Central Utah Water Conservancy District provides water to more than 1.6 million people, stretching from Salt Lake County to eastern Utah. Shawcroft said the tax increase is necessary because there are some pressing needs, including a pipeline at the mouth of Provo Canyon.

“This was built by an old landslide. At the time, geologists didn’t know what was there. The pipeline has been crushed by the landslide over the years and will break,” he told FOX 13 News. “This provides water to 1.6 million people.”

In the event of an earthquake or other emergency, they must be able to provide large parts of northern Utah with a safe and stable water supply, Shawcroft said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, one person spoke out against the tax increase. Pleasant Grove resident John Gadd told FOX 13 News he had attended previous truth in taxation hearings (legally required hearings where a taxing authority must justify the increase and take public comment) where others had complained about the tax increase. However, he said only two members of the water district board showed up.

“We are being taxed to death. There are tax increases here in the county, there are tax increases in the school district, and with inflation, there are simply higher amounts for families on tight budgets in Utah County and all the other jurisdictions you represent,” Gadd told board members. “If you want to have these truth in taxation hearings? You really should show up.”

The Utah Taxpayers Association has also stated that it is not in favor of the tax increase.

“The Central Utah Water Conservancy District’s property tax revenue has more than doubled in the last eight years,” the group’s president, Billy Hesterman, said in a statement to FOX 13 News. “These small increases the district makes year after year are death by a thousand paper cuts for the taxpayer. At a time of skyrocketing housing costs, it is unfathomable that the district is asking taxpayers to pay more, essentially increasing the amount required to own a home, instead of looking for ways to stretch the money it collects a little further.”

Salt Lake County Council members have complained in the past about water district tax increases. Some have pushed for water districts to switch to a “user fee” to cover water use instead of relying on property taxes, believing it would encourage conservation. A legislative study on this very issue is expected this fall.

However, Shawcroft said the district is legally required to make small tax increases to cover the costs.

“We have a legal limit of 0.0004 percent,” he said. “We cannot go beyond that. Other tax authorities can go several years without raising taxes and then make a relatively large increase of 20, 30, 40 or 50 percent.”