The City Won't Hand Over the Petition — And the Pamphlet Has a Date State Law May Not Allow

1. The Rate the Referendum Targets

Resolution R-62-2026, adopted by the Eagle Mountain City Council on August 18, 2026, set the city's property-tax rate at 0.000900 for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 — a 69.81% increase over the certified (revenue-neutral) rate of 0.000530. It was the third rate the council considered in twelve days.

• Aug 6, 2026Council holds Truth in Taxation hearing, unanimously approves a 183% rate increase (0.001500) after the original 220.88% proposal (0.001700) draws roughly 60 speakers against it.
• Aug 18, 2026Council adopts Resolution R-62-2026, walking the rate back further to 0.000900 — a 69.81% increase — alongside a $363,992,973 annual budget.
• Aug 24, 2026Referendum sponsors file their application with the city.
• Sept 14, 2026City Attorney Marcus Draper determines the referendum is legally referable under Utah Code Title 20A, Chapter 7.

2. The Date Problem

Sponsors' central legal objection to the draft ballot pamphlet is its proposed election date: August 10, 2027. Utah election law appears to foreclose that date for a tax-related ballot measure absent a specific, documented exception — and nothing in the public record reviewed for this piece shows that exception was invoked.

What the statute says

That date is fixed by statute, not by local choice: November 3, 2026 this year, November 2, 2027 next year. An August date for a tax referendum is not one of the options the statute lists.

The only exception

flowchart TD
  A["Wants a date
other than
Nov 2026/2027"] --> B{"Disaster
declared?"}
  B -- No --> F["NOT ALLOWED
by the statute's
text: use the
November date"]
  B -- Yes --> C{"Disaster and
reasons put
in writing?"}
  C -- No --> F
  C -- Yes --> D{"Council voted
UNANIMOUSLY?"}
  D -- No --> F
  D -- Yes --> E["Alternate date
permitted
20A-1-204(1)(c)"]
  style F fill:#a8431f,stroke:#7a2f16,color:#fff
  style E fill:#3d6b46,stroke:#2c4e33,color:#fff
  style A fill:#16273f,stroke:#0d1826,color:#f4f0e6

In other words: if Eagle Mountain has not adopted such an ordinance or resolution, an August 10, 2027 date on the pamphlet did not originate from a council vote at all — which is consistent with sponsors' account that the date was inserted during drafting, not adopted by the council. That distinction — a drafting choice versus a legislative act — is the crux of the dispute, and it is independently checkable against the city's own council minutes and any special-election ordinance, which this piece has not yet obtained.

3. The Materials Fight

Under Utah Code § 20A-7-613(7), once a referendum is determined referable, the City Recorder must provide the referendum petition, signature sheets, and an accurate Proposition Information Pamphlet within five calendar days. Sponsors say that hasn't happened, and that what has been provided is defective.

The $99.31/$8.28 figures track closely with independent reporting on the adopted rate's effect on a median-priced home (see Section 1), which lends some outside support to the pamphlet's math even though sponsors say its underlying sourcing wasn't disclosed to them as required.

4. Other Spending Sponsors Point To

The sponsors' public "Argument in Favor" cites several other city expenditures as context for why they see the tax increase as avoidable. Some of this checks out against independent, primary-source records; one claim could not be verified at all.

Confirmed

• MHTN Architects feasibility study. A June 16, 2026 council meeting agenda lists both "MHTN Architects to Conduct a City Hall & Library Feasibility Study" and an action item on "compensation increases for executive municipal officers" on the same day — corroborating sponsors' claim that the city heard both items at once. This piece did not independently confirm the specific $56,500 payment or the 5.49% raise figure sponsors cite; a prior year's public notice shows a different cap (5.9%, FY2025-2026), so the two years' figures should not be conflated.
• $220 million water/sewer bond. A public notice confirms the City Council authorized Water and Sewer Revenue Bonds, Series 2026, "not to exceed two hundred twenty million dollars," approved Feb. 17, 2026 with a March 5, 2026 public hearing. Sponsors' materials cite $228 million — an $8 million discrepancy from the official authorization figure that hasn't been resolved.

Unverified

5. What's Confirmed, What Isn't

People in This Record

Sponsors are private citizens and are listed by name only, as they appear in their own press release.

More Eagle Mountain officials, with their roles in the city's finances, are on the finance history page.

Questions Worth Asking

• Ask the Eagle Mountain City Recorder's office: has the referendum petition, signature sheets, and pamphlet been transmitted to the sponsors, and on what date?
• Ask the City Council: has any ordinance or resolution been adopted declaring a disaster and unanimously setting an August 2027 election date under § 20A-1-204(1)(c)? If not, on what authority does the pamphlet cite that date?
• Ask the City Attorney's office: for a copy of the September 14, 2026 referability determination letter itself.
• Ask the Utah County Clerk's elections office: whether any Eagle Mountain referendum has been submitted for a future ballot, and on what date it would appear.
• Ask your state senator (Sen. Emily Buss, District 11): whether the Legislature plans to clarify when a local tax referendum may be voted on.
• Ask the City: for the specific VPA boundary documents provided to sponsors, and the date they were last updated.