what will utah’s H₂OAX
Cost you?
Hoodwinked for higher taxes
Hardworking Utahns are already suffering because of America’s affordability crisis. From rising grocery costs and gas prices to snowballing health insurance premiums and medical bills, Utah families are feeling the strain of hard times. But Utah’s elected officials are considering a proposal to make your life even harder to benefit special interests if some government lobbyists at the Utah Legislature get their way.
Lobbyists are making frightening claims to hoodwink your legislators into shoehorning a new income tax into your water bill. As crazy as that sounds, it gets even worse. This proposal is founded on a huge financial exaggeration that raises questions about how simple math could be so manipulated. And this tax could be just the beginning of what this hoax could cost you.
Water is essential for every person on the planet. Because it is so important, we can get taken advantage of when those who provide our water attempt to frighten and mislead us by inflating public spending needs. That’s exactly what’s happening right now in Utah, and this hoax will cost you dearly.
This claim is founded on the Utah HB 280 Water Infrastructure Projects Fee Study which ironically has no water infrastructure projects in it. The study was commissioned by the Utah Division of Water Resources. The Division claims this 2025 study “discovered” that Utah has a $1.2 billion water spending need, but it failed to list any water projects or consider the $2 billion in revenues Utahns are generating for water costs. This study not only goes out of its way to avoid listing any water infrastructure projects, it also doesn’t actually document a water spending need. Instead, the study focuses on proposing to create “a UDOT for water” through several different means of raising taxes on Utahns’ water bills.
Our independent analysis found a litany of other shocking flaws in this study. Nowhere does it mention or account for the billions of dollars in current revenues that Utahns are paying water suppliers.
All the money the public pays in water bills was ignored. Every dollar paid in sewer bills was ignored. Every dollar paid in property taxes to water suppliers on cars, housing, and businesses was ignored. Every dollar paid in impact fees to water suppliers was ignored. Every dollar paid in sales taxes to water suppliers for everything purchased in Utah — from a stick of gum to an automobile — was ignored. Every dollar in interest earned off the assets that water suppliers have at financial institutions was ignored.
Why We Exist
Don’t you think it’s time to hold our elected officials accountable for fiscal conservatism and honesty in Utah’s water sector?