Where your $27 goes: Canyons tax vote puts $4.5 million toward school repairs and debt

The $27-a-year tax increase Canyons School District homeowners will see on their next bill is mostly paying for building repairs and faster debt payoff at schools across the district, including campuses in Draper.

The Canyons Board of Education voted 7-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 4, to raise the certified tax rate to 0.005559, generating roughly $6.9 million in new revenue for the 2026-2027 school year, according to the district's hearing summary. It was only the fourth time in the district's 18-year history that the board has adjusted the rate.

As we reported Aug. 5, the board approved the increase at the conclusion of a Truth-in-Taxation hearing. Here's where the money actually goes.

$4.5 million: bond debt and building repairs

The biggest slice, $4.5 million, will accelerate payments on construction bonds the district took on over 16 years of building and modernizing schools. As that debt is retired, the freed-up dollars will fund elementary school building repairs and renovations district-wide. Business Administrator Leon Wilcox told the board in May that the early payoff would save taxpayers "millions in interest payments" while putting the district in a position to address needed repairs "without increasing the tax burden on property owners."

For a Draper family in a home assessed at the district average of $770,000, the increase works out to about $2.60 a month.

Employee raises and new CTE teachers

Another $2.2 million covers a 0.75% cost-of-living raise for all Canyons employees, from licensed teachers to support staff to administrators. Under negotiated contracts, those raises would not have taken effect if the board had rejected the rate change.

A separate $201,000 funds two new Career and Technical Education teachers at the Canyons Innovation Center, the technical training facility being developed at eBay's former regional headquarters in Draper. One will teach manufacturing; the other, engineering.

The vote and public input

All seven board members voted yes: President Amber Shill, Co-Vice Presidents Andrew Edtl and Amanda Oaks, and members Katie Dahle, Jackson Lewis, Holly Neibaur Hayes and Karen Pedersen. Seven community members spoke during the hearing's public-input period.

Board President Shill noted during the hearing that the district has cut costs in recent years by transferring central-office staff to school-based roles, reducing administrative positions and consolidating departments.

The Utah Taxpayers Association flagged Canyons as holding a Truth-in-Taxation hearing for the third consecutive year. Billy Hesterman, the association's president, said in an Aug. 4 press release published by Utah Policy that entities returning repeatedly "should not need to ask residents for additional revenue year after year without presenting a credible long-term plan to control spending."