Meet Tawnee McCay: Riverton City Candidate for Mayor, Financial Expert & Community Leader

The PoliticIt interview with Tawnee McCay offers a candid, practical look at what local leadership can — and should — be. In a thoughtful conversation that covers her roots, her professional background in finance, and her eight years on the Riverton City Council, Tawnee lays out a philosophy of limited, effective municipal government, fiscal conservatism, and community-first decision making. This article distills that conversation into a clear narrative of Tawnee’s background, policy priorities, and vision for Riverton, and provides added context to help residents understand the stakes and evaluate the choices before them.

Why this profile matters

Local elections are often decided by small numbers of engaged voters, yet the decisions made at the city level affect everyday life more directly than many state or federal policies. The costs and benefits of parks, police services, code enforcement, and budgets are felt in property taxes, business growth, and the character of neighborhoods. In her interview, Tawnee McCay emphasizes that municipal leaders must balance essential services with respect for individual liberty, property rights, and family choice. She brings a practitioner’s perspective — shaped by personal hardship, professional training, and practical results — to that balancing act.

PoliticIt Radio – This Girl Leads Riverton

Outline of this article

• Background: Family, education, and formative experiences
• Professional grounding: Why a finance background matters in local government
• Record on the council: Sales tax, bonds, and the decision to self-provide policing
• Philosophy of government: The “hierarchy of municipal needs” and limits of authority
• Policy examples: Ducks, dogs, storage containers, and code enforcement
• HOAs, property rights, and where municipal oversight belongs
• Vision for Riverton: Fiscal responsibility, community policing, and maintaining a hometown feel
• Voter engagement: Turnout, civic responsibility, and why every vote counts
• Conclusion: A practical case for pragmatic local leadership

Background: Family, education, and formative experiences

Tawnee McCay’s story begins in Cache Valley, Utah — a place she describes with affection and where the values that guide her public service were forged. Raised in a large family, Tawnee learned early the realities of financial vulnerability. When her father suffered a severe motorcycle accident that left him in a coma and required him to return to school, the household faced real hardship. Utilities were shut off at times, the family worked on a church farm, and extended family pitched in to keep the mortgage current. Those moments left a lasting impression: Tawnee remembers the fear of not knowing where the next meal would come from and resolved not to leave herself or her family vulnerable to the same uncertainty.

Her father’s return to education and subsequent employment at Utah State University became a turning point. Education opened doors for the family, with all seven of her father’s children eventually attending Utah State — and even her mother joining when the youngest started school.

That life story explains Tawnee’s choice of professional focus. A personal finance class sparked an interest she would pursue at the graduate level. Tawnee earned an MBA from Utah State University with emphasis on financial planning and followed that with work in financial counseling, teaching, and community-focused roles. Her career directly complements her public service: she is an Accredited Financial Counselor, a Financial Literacy Instructor, an adjunct faculty member at USU, and serves as Director of the Housing and Financial Counseling Center.

Family life and community service

Tawnee and her husband Dan have been married for over two decades and are parents to six children. Beyond raising their own family, the McCays have participated in foster care, and they currently host a young woman from Haiti who attends Riverton High School and is learning English. This lived experience — juggling a big family, welcoming foster children, and mentoring teens — provides Tawnee with a practical understanding of the needs of families in Riverton, many of whom are young households with children in school.

That perspective matters politically: in a city where over a third of residents are under 18, leadership that understands the demands of family life and youth services can make more informed decisions about parks, recreation, mental health resources, school coordination, and public safety.

Professional grounding: Why a finance background matters in local government

Local government is management as much as it is politics. Tawnee brings a finance-first lens to her public service. In the video interview she explains how her MBA and work as a financial planner influence the way she evaluates municipal choices, especially when it comes to the city budget, debt, and long-term obligations.

One defining experience was Riverton’s development boom: the arrival of a major shopping center that included a Costco brought a meaningful uptick in sales tax revenue. The initial reaction in many cities would be to increase services or expand spending to reflect the new revenue stream. Tawnee, however, advocated a more prudent approach. Recognizing that sales tax can fluctuate and that windfall revenue should reduce long-term burdens, she helped build consensus on the council to direct half of the increased sales tax receipts toward debt reduction.

The results were tangible: over three years, Riverton paid off three of the city’s six bonds — a move that took significant interest obligations off the books and produced material savings for residents. That kind of financial stewardship illustrates why having someone with strong financial literacy in elected office can influence municipal resilience.

Concrete fiscal outcomes

It’s one thing to claim fiscal responsibility; it’s another to show audited outcomes. Tawnee cites two measurable examples that demonstrate her approach:

• Debt reduction: Redirecting a portion of new sales tax revenue to pay down city bonds. Over three years, Riverton retired half of one of its revenue-based obligations by paying off three of six bonds.
• Operational savings: The decision to self-provide police services — a major governance choice — has reportedly saved the city over $21 million to date, a figure that comes from comparing contract costs with the long-term operating model of a municipal department.

These figures do more than bolster campaign soundbites. They show the compounding effect of policy choices that prioritize lower recurring costs and reduce interest payments, which in turn keeps pressure off property taxes and other resident levies.

Record on the council: Sales tax, bonds, and the decision to self-provide policing

Tawnee’s record is anchored by a handful of high-impact decisions. Two stand out: how the council used the sales-tax windfall from retail growth, and the pivotal vote to move from a regional police contract to a self-provided municipal police department.

From contract policing to community policing

At one time, Riverton contracted for police services from a larger regional agency. Under that model, officers might split time between multiple jurisdictions — potentially being one day in Riverton and another day in adjacent municipalities. Tawnee and the council analyzed the structure and costs and elected to build a city-run police department that remains resident in Riverton.

The benefits, according to Tawnee, are threefold:

• Cost savings: The switch reportedly saved the city in excess of $21 million compared to the contract model — money that can fund other essential services or be used to maintain low tax rates.
• Community relationships: Resident officers stay and serve in the same neighborhoods day after day, building familiarity with residents, businesses, and institutions such as assisted living centers where knowing floor plans and procedures matters in emergency responses.
• Crime deterrence: A consistent police presence is a preventative force that helps keep crime rates low and improves residents’ sense of security.

Tawnee describes this switch as a defining part of her local leadership. She notes that because of the savings and improved local responsiveness, the city has not needed to raise property taxes specifically for police or fire services during her time on the council.

Budget stewardship and limits on growth

Local governments must decide where to invest limited resources. As Tawnee points out, staff recommendations often favor expanding programs and personnel. That’s explainable — staff are tasked with serving residents and may see unmet needs — but elected leaders must weigh those recommendations against long-term financial sustainability and the desires of taxpayers.

As mayor, the practical responsibilities of setting a budget become even more prominent: the mayor proposes an initial budget, and the council then reviews and adjusts it. Tawnee emphasizes that a mayor with her financial background would bring a disciplined, sustainability-minded lens to those initial decisions.

Philosophy of government: The “hierarchy of municipal needs” and limits of authority

One of the clearest thematic frameworks that emerged in Tawnee’s interview is what she terms — informally — a hierarchy of municipal needs. She borrows a structure analogous to Maslow’s hierarchy or sequential priorities to explain the proper role of city government:

1. Police and fire — the basic public safety foundation
2. Infrastructure essentials — clean water, waste collection, main roads
3. Maintenance and quality-of-life services — potholes, traffic calming
4. Community amenities — parks, events, recreation centers

Tawnee argues that cities should first secure and maintain the essentials: safety, water, sanitation, and major infrastructure. Only after these baseline functions are satisfied should city resources be devoted to discretionary or “quality of life” projects. Even then, she cautions that the city must honor individual choice and preserve limited government — not overreach into the day-to-day decisions families make.

Her approach reflects conservative governance principles: protect the core functions that enable markets and families to thrive, limit expansion of government mandates, and return or prioritize scarce dollars toward obligations that preserve long-term affordability for residents.

Decision-making close to the people — but not intrusive

There’s a paradox in local government: decisions are supposed to be made “close to the people,” which gives municipal leaders more flexibility to match services with local preferences. At the same time, municipal power can intrude into personal life through regulations and codes that dictate homeowners’ behavior.

Tawnee’s answer is nuance: she supports local decision-making and community standards when residents choose them (for instance, through Homeowners Associations), but she opposes heavy-handed municipal enforcement that strips property owners of reasonable choices or imposes fines and criminal penalties where neighborly solutions could suffice.

Policy examples: Ducks, dogs, storage containers, and code enforcement

Broad philosophies are informative, but specific stories illustrate how those philosophies translate to policy. Tawnee recounts several municipal controversies in Riverton that reveal the tension between public order and individual liberty.

The ducks ordinance: when municipal regulation replaces neighborly solutions

An elderly woman in Riverton began feeding ducks in front of her home after her spouse passed away. Over time the ducks populated the yard and sidewalks, becoming a nuisance for neighbors who faced waste on walkways and concerns about sanitation. Rather than encouraging neighbors to build relationships with the widow — inviting her to community dinners or finding volunteer help — the city passed an ordinance that made feeding wild fowl in a private yard or at a park illegal and potentially criminal.

“Have you invited her over for dinner? …maybe the government doesn’t need to get involved in that.”

Tawnee points to this example as emblematic: code enforcement could have been a first step, involving a personal visit and a compassionate solution. Instead, an ordinance created a blanket restriction that can criminalize ordinary activity — even tossing a sandwich crust at a park.

The dog ordinance: balancing safety and proportionality

Another contentious policy allowed a person to kill a dog if it is “repeatedly barking, bearing its teeth, or growling.” On its face, the clause seems to protect residents from dangerous animals. In Tawnee’s assessment, however, the language is excessively broad and lacks important qualifiers, such as whether the threat is imminent, whether the dog is off-leash, or whether the location is on private property.

Without limiting language, a passerby could interpret a fence-line bark as justification for lethal force. Tawnee expresses disbelief that the council approved such sweeping language, and she believes the policy went too far by making acts that feel aggressive (but not necessarily dangerous) into grounds for taking an animal’s life.

Storage containers and property rights

After an older resident’s barn burned down — destroying her hay and equipment — she bought corrugated storage containers as a practical solution. The containers were functional, secure, non-rusty, and placed away from public view on a property that exceeded an acre. Yet the city passed an ordinance requiring exterior modifications (vinyl siding or materials to match the home) — effectively forcing a more expensive, less durable, and less suitable option on the homeowner.

The resident explained that vinyl siding would be scratched and damaged by horses in the pasture. Tawnee argues that the city’s decision did not respect the homeowner’s property rights or practical needs, privileging aesthetic conformity over functionality and family choice.

HOAs, property rights, and where municipal oversight belongs

Homeowners Associations (HOAs) are private organizations that homeowners agree to join when they purchase property in a governed community. They can provide real benefits: maintaining landscaping, reducing blight, and protecting property values. But they can also be a source of frustration when rules are inflexible, fees increase, or enforcement feels capricious.

Tawnee highlights a common complaint: residents treated as rule-followers who receive fines without clear communication or timely responses. She recounts a case where a rental unit owner received multiple $25 fines for small grease spots — with the total penalty escalating to $75 after delayed communication. This kind of enforcement can feel bureaucratic and disproportionate, especially when hearing from the HOA takes time and channels are slow.

Her stance is clear: if communities choose restrictive covenants, that’s a valid market option. Homeowners can elect to live in those environments. But municipal government should not adopt HOA-like micromanagement broadly or enforce rules that belong to private covenants. Instead, cities should focus on clear, essential codes that protect health and safety and avoid overregulation of aesthetics and minor disputes that are better solved privately or neighborly.

Vision for Riverton: Fiscal responsibility, community policing, and maintaining a hometown feel

Tawnee’s candidacy is grounded in pragmatic conservatism. Her vision includes several core priorities:

• Maintain fiscal conservatism: Keep taxes and fees reasonable, use windfall revenue to reduce debt, and scrutinize new spending requests.
• Support community policing: Keep officers resident in Riverton so they can build relationships, understand local institutions, and respond quickly and effectively.
• Protect property rights: Limit intrusive code enforcement and respect residents’ choices when they don’t harm public safety or neighbor rights.
• Preserve the hometown feel: Balance growth and amenities with a commitment to family-friendly neighborhoods and safe streets.

Tawnee frames these priorities not as ideological abstractions but as practical measures that affect everyday life. When municipal debt is reduced, interest payments fall and burdens on taxpayers are eased. When officers live and work in the city, response times shrink and institutional knowledge improves. When the city limits unnecessary regulation, families retain dignity and control over their property choices.

Balancing staff recommendations with fiscal prudence

One practical government challenge Tawnee highlights is the natural tension between staff proposals and budgetary realities. Staff often propose new programs, positions, and capital projects that address community needs. However, every increase in services means either a reallocation of funds, a higher tax burden, or deferred maintenance elsewhere.

Tawnee believes the mayor must bring a disciplined filter to those recommendations: accept high-value projects that align with the city’s priorities and financial capabilities, reject or delay lower-priority items, and preserve flexibility to respond to emergencies or downturns. Her financial background is, in her view, an asset for making these judgments with an eye toward long-term stability.

Voter engagement: Turnout, civic responsibility, and why every vote counts

Tawnee’s closing appeal to the audience was a call for higher civic participation. Voter turnout in the Riverton primary was notably low — the Friday before the election it stood at 16%. For municipal elections that often determine services residents use daily, low turnout means a small electorate is deciding decisions that affect thousands of households.

Her message to Riverton voters is straightforward:

• Get engaged. Learn what local candidates stand for and how their policy decisions will shape budgets, services, and neighborhood life.
• Vote. Low turnout amplifies the voice of a small group; higher participation produces outcomes that better reflect community priorities.
• Ask practical questions. When evaluating candidates, ask about experience with budgets, specific votes (like self-providing police), and approaches to property rights and code enforcement.

Campaigns often spotlight personality and slogans, but Tawnee’s focus is on outcomes and responsibilities. Her appeal: elect leaders who understand budgets, who will defend core services, and who will restrain expansionary impulses that produce long-term fiscal obligations.

Analyzing the trade-offs: What Riverton voters should weigh

Local governance is rarely binary; policies involve trade-offs. The examples Tawnee provides are useful guides for how to evaluate those trade-offs:

• Public safety vs. cost: The move to a dedicated city police force produced savings and local responsiveness, but it also required investment in staffing and equipment. Voters must weigh whether the localized benefits justify the executive and operating costs relative to contracting with regional services.
• Local standards vs. personal liberty: Ordinances on wildlife feeding, animals, and storage containers aim to maintain community standards, but when they lack nuance they can be seen as punitive or overreaching. The ideal approach will be narrowly tailored to serious harms and allow room for neighborly solutions where possible.
• Growth vs. hometown character: Sales tax revenue from new retail centers provides resources, but unchecked spending on amenities can erode the small-town characteristics many residents value. Responsible planning and debt management help preserve character while investing prudently.

When evaluating candidates, citizens should ask how those candidates would handle specific scenarios: Would they prioritize debt reduction? How would they respond to a spike in infrastructure needs? Would they amend or revisit ordinances that have led to community dissatisfaction? The answers reveal a candidate’s operational philosophy.

Practical recommendations for citizens and policymakers

Based on the issues raised in the conversation, here are practical steps both residents and municipal leaders can pursue:

For residents

• Attend city council meetings or review agendas online to track proposed ordinances and budgets.
• Engage neighbors before calling code enforcement; community-based solutions can be faster and less punitive.
• When buying property, understand HOA covenants and weigh whether you prefer regulatory uniformity or fewer restrictions.
• Vote in local elections — the outcome affects daily services and tax burdens directly.

For city leaders and staff

• Prioritize clear, narrowly tailored codes that address health and safety rather than aesthetic disputes unless those disputes rise to a community-defined nuisance threshold.
• When introducing ordinances with criminal penalties, include precise definitions and exemptions that protect against unintended consequences.
• Use windfall revenues strategically: earmark portions for debt reduction or one-time capital needs rather than recurring expenditures.
• Improve communication channels for enforcement actions to reduce delays and avoid punitive escalation due to miscommunication.

Why Tawnee’s mix of experience matters

Tawnee’s combination of lived experience, family responsibilities, and financial expertise provides a coherent policy rationale. Her formative experience with financial insecurity explains her sensitivity to tax and fee increases. Her MBA and professional role in financial counseling show how she applies analytical tools to budgets and debt. And her time on the council demonstrates how those tools have been used to produce measurable savings for Riverton residents.

Her style — practical, community-oriented, and cautious about government expansion — appeals to voters who favor local control, strong public safety, and fiscal discipline. For residents concerned about property rights and overreaching municipal regulations, her examples of the ducks ordinance, dog policy language, and storage-container restrictions provide concrete evidence of her priorities in action.

Common questions voters might ask based on this profile

When deciding on local leadership, residents often have specific concerns. Below are likely voter questions and how Tawnee’s record and positions address them:

Q: How will you keep taxes low while funding necessary services?

A: By prioritizing debt reduction, scrutinizing staff requests for expansion, and using sales-tax windfalls to retire bonds. The decision to allocate half of new sales tax revenue toward debt reduction is a concrete example of how one revenue source was used to relieve future obligations.

Q: Why did you support forming Riverton’s own police department?

A: The council’s analysis showed that self-providing saved money relative to the regional contract, improved response times, and allowed officers to build local relationships — a combination of fiscal and operational benefits.

Q: What’s your approach to code enforcement and neighborhood disputes?

A: Focus on mediation and neighborly solutions where possible. Reserve heavy-handed enforcement for cases that threaten public health, safety, or property, and ensure ordinances are narrowly tailored and proportional.

Q: How do you balance growth and maintaining Riverton’s character?

A: Prioritize necessities like police, fire, water, and roads while being cautious about discretionary spending. Use prudent fiscal management to invest in amenities that preserve community character without imposing long-term financial risks.

Conclusion: A pragmatic case for thoughtful local leadership

Tawnee McCay’s candidacy is presented as a continuation of a record grounded in fiscal stewardship, community-centered policing, and protection of property rights. Her personal story — growing up in a family that weathered hardship, pursuing a finance education, raising a large family, and working in financial counseling — frames the priorities she brings to municipal governance.

The practical results she cites — paying down bonds, saving millions by restructuring police services, and advocating for limited, effective government — are the kinds of outcomes voters can evaluate concretely. Her focus on neighborly solutions before criminalizing behavior, and on property owners’ rights before aesthetic mandates, resonates with those who want a responsive but restrained city government.

Local leadership requires balancing competing interests. Tawnee’s perspective is one of a fiscal conservative who believes government should secure essential services and protect residents’ liberty and property, while not becoming a substitute for family, faith, and neighborhood solutions. For Riverton voters, the choice will be about what kind of city they want: one that prioritizes core services and financial health or one that expands regulatory reach and discretionary programs without equal focus on long-term sustainability.

Whatever one’s position, the closing lesson is civic: engage. Low turnout in local elections means that fewer voices shape decisions that affect daily life. Residents are encouraged to review candidates’ records, ask pointed questions about budgets and ordinances, and vote with an eye toward outcomes that preserve both community safety and individual freedom.

Key takeaways

• Tawnee McCay combines a personal history with financial expertise to inform her approach to local government.
• Her council record emphasizes debt reduction and local policing as measurable successes.
• She opposes broad, punitive ordinances that go beyond protecting health and safety.
• Her campaign focuses on fiscal conservatism, community policing, property rights, and preserving Riverton’s hometown character.
• Voter engagement is critical — local elections have outsized influence on daily life.

For residents who want a mayor focused on fiscal prudence, community safety, and limited government that defers to family and individual choice, Tawnee McCay makes a straightforward, practical case. The examples she shares from code decisions to budget choices provide voters with the information they need to decide whether her approach aligns with their priorities for Riverton’s future.

🔑 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

✔️ How Tawnee’s childhood shaped her approach to fiscal responsibility.

✔️ Why a finance background matters in local government.

✔️ How Riverton paid off three city bonds in just three years.

✔️ Why the move to self-provide policing has saved the city over $21 million.

✔️ The importance of protecting property rights and limiting overregulation.

✔️ The “hierarchy of municipal needs” — a clear philosophy for limited, effective city government.

✔️ How ducks, dogs, and storage containers reveal the real tensions of local code enforcement.

✔️ Why voter engagement matters more in city elections than anywhere else.

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🌟 About Tawnee McCay

• Riverton City Councilmember (8 years of service)
• MBA, Utah State University – Financial Planning
• Accredited Financial Counselor & Financial Literacy Instructor
• Director, Housing and Financial Counseling Center
• Wife, mother of six, foster parent, and community mentor

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🏛️ Why This Matters

Local elections decide how cities handle budgets, policing, parks, code enforcement, and growth. Tawnee makes the case for measured, principled leadership that balances fiscal stewardship with community safety — while protecting the liberty of families and property owners.

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📢 Get Involved

👉 Learn more about Tawnee’s leadership and policies: [Vote McCay]

👉 Watch more Politic-It interviews: http://politicIt.com

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