SWEETWATER COUNTY — During last week’s Sweetwater County Commission meeting, the Commission voted 4-1 to approve for Turn Corps to help get public participation early on in the specific purpose tax initiative process.

Turn Corps has been retained at a cost of not more than $20,000 to conduct a community survey, and move forward with paid promotions and community outreach. Commissioner Roy Lloyd was the sole vote against retaining Turn Corps.

Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld said the goal of working with Turn Corps is to get public input on the tax initiative early so their opinions are taken into consideration and community members feel heard.

“Most certainly in the last tax initiative, the public didn’t feel like they were heard beforehand. They didn’t feel like their input was taken into place, we saw that across the board… by engaging Turn Corps early in the process, it would allow us to get the public’s input prior to making any ballot decisions, prior to making any project decisions, and it would allow us to rely on some community polls specific to Sweetwater County,” Schoenfeld said.

She added that she believes the community input component to the tax is the part that has been missing. However, since elected officials have other jobs and responsibilities outside of their elected roles, they do not always have the time to properly dedicate to reaching out to the public. That’s where Turn Corps comes in.

We don’t want to do another ballot initiative that isn’t successful.

~ Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld

Sarah O’Keefe, Co-owner of Turn Corps, said that the first phase of this process is reintroducing the idea of a special purpose tax to the community. This includes exploring with the community what a specific purpose tax initiative might look like specific to Sweetwater County.

The first phase includes a community survey that will provide Turn Corps and elected officials some quantitative insights on how the community feels about a specific purpose tax, and may give some direction on what projects are important to Sweetwater County.

Additionally, Turn Corps will work on promotional information by putting out press releases through local media and posting information on the county website about what the tax initiative is, and how it will look for Sweetwater County.

Commissioner Schoenfeld said she is proposing that the county covers the initial cost of this process as they get community input, as the county are the deciding factor and leaders in this tax initiative.

“I think it’s important for us to take that lead,” she said.

She added that as they move through the process and engage the communities more, the county can share the cost with other municipalities. Schoenfeld added that the Special Purpose Tax Committee, which includes representation from all of Sweetwater County’s municipalities, has supported moving forward with this process with Turn Corps.

Chairman Jeff Smith asked about what happens if the survey shows a strong opposition to the tax, and whether they have to pay for further services.

O’Keefe said there would be a discussion among all Turn Corps and the elected officials about whether the reason for the opposition is something they can overcome with an abundance of communication and public engagement, or if they think they’re not going to be able to close that gap between opposition and support.

If they believe the gap cannot be closed, Turn Corps would recommend not moving forward, in which case the rest of the process wouldn’t matter. However, she said it’s pretty rare that they get a gap so wide that they feel they cannot close it with communication and engagement with community members.

Commissioner Roy Lloyd said he struggles with working with Turn Corps due to the extent in which he believes the tax has lost voter confidence since the general purpose tax initiative failed at the polls in 2021.

“I think the level that we lost voter confidence was pretty strong, I think the lack of education and the lack of knowledge that people understand a specific purpose tax and a general purpose tax is very large and I think that’s really going to be hard to beat,” Commissioner Lloyd said.

He said he struggles to see anything more than 40-50 million dollars worth of projects that aren’t very tangible things passing. Though Lloyd agrees that this working with Turn Corps is a good process, he has doubts about a tax passing.

“I’m worried about if I want to spend $13,500 to find out if I feel is right,” Lloyd said.

The $13,500 he is referring to is the cost of Turn Corps’ scientifically-validated community survey. However, Schoenfeld clarified that the county will be going forward with the $7,500 community survey.

Schoenfeld said the next steps are to set up a community meeting to have discussions with the public and then have Turn Corps move forward with a joint press release from all municipalities and the county so the public has an idea of what to expect moving forward.