Lehi City News
Lehi City Council votes to dissolve PARC tax committee
Nichole Coombs | Lehi Free Press
The Lehi City Council revised the PARC Tax program guidelines and eliminated the PARC Tax committee.
The committee, made up of volunteer residents and city staff, received applications for the PARC Tax Community Grant Program, vetted applicants, and presented funding recommendations to the city council.
In a written statement, Nicole Kunze, the PARC Tax Committee chair for the 2022-2023 budget cycle, said, “The city council has the best view of what Lehi needs right now, and I’m sure their decision to eliminate the PARC Tax Advisory Committee wasn’t made lightly.”
Serving as a volunteer on the committee requires many hours of meetings and public hearings. One member who served on the PARC tax committee last year estimated she spent well over 20 hours. Council member James Harrison felt this could be done internally.
“I think based on my experience this year, the PARC committee is doing a lot of due diligence, mostly around whether they [the applicants] even qualify,” said Harrison. “And then they are balancing the numbers of what their allocated amount was versus what was requested. I’m comfortable with staff running that.”
In April 2026, the council disagreed with the committee’s initial recommendation and preferred to use reserve funds to meet general fund-supported requests. This move helped the council balance the budget and moved all nonprofit financial support into the PARC Tax grant program.
“I like being able to look at what the needs of the grants are at the beginning of the [budget] process,” said council member Heather Newall.
Although the timeline for grant proposal submissions and awards stays the same, Kunze is concerned that nonprofits won’t have sufficient time to present their proposals.
“We listened to 15-minute presentations from more than a dozen applicants,” said Kunze. We met again to discuss the presentations and write out our recommendations, and then presented them in a city council work session. Under the proposed changes, the application timeline and staff workload stay the same, but the committee’s volunteer hours transfer entirely to the city council. The grant applicants will now have three minutes to give their presentations at a city council meeting, a fifth of the time prior applicants had to present to the committee.”
The PARC tax generates approximately $1.3-$1.5 million annually. Guidelines currently state that 30% of that income is allocated to arts and culture through the grant program. The additional 70% funds parks and recreation.
“If we do ‘up to 30%,’ it gives us flexibility to stay at or sometimes go below 30%,” said Harrison. “It gives more discretion to give money to the Parks Department for capital projects that actually save the taxpayers money in the general fund.”
Council member Newall agreed.
“Maybe there’s a greater need for parks one year that we have something we want to make happen, so we increase it [the amount going to the parks department].”
The allocated 30% is not Utah State code. It’s a policy recommendation for council members to use as a guideline.
The grant application wording was also strengthened, stating that qualifying organizations must have a significant presence in Lehi. The guidelines define this as “it is headquartered or maintains its principal place of business in the city.”
The council vote was 4 to 1 to change the guidelines, with council member Emily Lockhart casting the dissenting vote.
“Unfortunately, I can’t support getting rid of the committee, so I’m going to be a no,” said Lockhart.
“I’ve been on both sides of that process now – as a member of the PARC Tax Advisory Committee and now as an employee of the Lehi Historical Society applying for the Arts and Culture Grant,” said Kunze. “The stakes are very high for any non-profit applying for the Arts and Culture Grant. I feel like the PARC Tax Advisory Committee added a layer of impartiality and transparency, as well as deeper engagement with more residents.”
Kunze also noted that American Fork, Salt Lake County, Provo and Eagle Mountain all have similar PARC taxes with grant opportunities, and all of those cities have resident volunteer committees who listen to applicant presentations and make recommendations to the city council.
