County commission candidate Brett BS calls recent pay and tax hikes 'absurd,' pledges two-year no-tax-increase push

Brett BS, a Republican candidate for Utah County Commissioner (seat A), told host Charles Max Wood on April 1 that recent pay and tax decisions by the county commission are out of step with local expectations and fiscal prudence. "That is just absolutely absurd," he said of commissioner salary increases that he says pushed pay from roughly $119,000 to about $166,000-plus benefits.

Brett BS said he would tie compensation to the actual workload and public expectations rather than peer-county comparisons, and said his campaign paperwork proposes commissioner pay of roughly "$60,000 a year for the time that they're" working (candidate's phrasing). He argued excessive salaries also raise benefit costs countywide and called the growth of the commission office staff into a larger administrative layer "bureaucracy" that should be reviewed for necessity.

The candidate also criticized recent property-tax increases, saying county voters received inadequate explanation for raises he characterized as large (he cited earlier increases he described as 67% in 2019 and 48% in 2024). He said he will "not raise taxes" during his first two years in office and will "fight it tooth and nail," while reserving the third and fourth years for contingencies tied to unpredictable economic conditions.

On budgeting, Brett BS said he favors line-item review to distinguish "needs" from "wants" and would press elected department heads to justify promised programs. He urged internal accountability measures — including peer review of commissioners — to make officials answerable to constituents and to rein in duplicated services (for example, passport processing and other functions he said can be redundant).

The interview covered public legal costs as well: Brett BS said a high-profile trial could cost "somewhere between I'm estimating three to $4 million" and suggested the county consider limits or clearer standards on outside public-defender billing in unusually expensive matters to protect taxpayers.

If elected, he said he favors moving from a three-member commission to a five-member, district-based body to improve geographic representation, and pledged that county officials should be directly accessible to residents rather than filtered through administrative staff.

The candidate provided campaign contact information at the end of the interview and reiterated a campaign theme of fiscal restraint and constituent accountability. Charles Max Wood conducted the interview on the Utah County Republican Party podcast. The episode closed with music.