by Kylee Boyter
kboyter@cherryroad.com
The Sevier County clerks office released the official results of the June 25, 2024 Republican Primary election results where candidate Ralph Brown secured the primary election win with a majority vote of 60.75% over Brad Duffin.
“I received an overwhelming amount of support from residents across Sevier County,” said Brown. “Many residents called and offered their support throughout my campaign. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue serving Sevier County.”
Brown won the overall Primary election by a total of 1,038 votes, as released by the Sevier County Clerks office on July 8.
Brown highlighted on some of the key concerns residents faced coming into this election.
“The county commissioners and myself are committed to working with the city’s to meet their individual economic goals,” said brown. “Some city’s in the county are seeking economic development and others are not, it is our responsibility to support each city on their own level and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Brown highlighted that the new meat packing plant in the old Winkel’s Distributing building has brought in 28 new jobs to the area. He explained the coal mine is also adding an additional 150 positions to meet their needs.
“Another issue discussed throughout my campaign was property taxes,” said Brown. “In my eight years as county commissioner I have never voted to raise taxes.”
As explained by Utah Property Tax Division, There are two types of tax rates: (1) entity and (2) area. A group of entity rates make up the area rate. The area rate becomes the final tax rate charged by counties against the assessed value of a specific property. Just as households spend money on various budget items, taxing entities frequently have more than one budget. Tax rate increases have legal disclosure requirements called “truth-in-taxation.” Here you can find information about entity budgets, entity tax rates, area tax rates and truth-in-taxation.
“In my two prior terms, we have never held a truth-in-taxation, then we cannot raise the tax rate,” said Brown.
Brown looks forward to the November election.
