Property tax notices — a shock in the mail

• Taxes vary widely across Utah. The highest are in a small part of Shadow Mountain Lane in Ogden: $2,395 on a $250,000 home. The lowest are in an unincorporated part of Rich County near Bear Lake: $694 on a $250,000 home.

• Among the 25 most populous communities in Utah, people in Ogden pay the highest property taxes, followed by Salt Lake City and West Valley City. The lowest taxes among them are in St. George, followed by Pleasant Grove and Orem.

Big increases

Some places will have worse news on tax notices than others.

For example, the town of Kanarraville, south of Cedar City in Iron County, imposed the largest property tax budget increase of any government by percentage: 389.1 percent. In other words, its tax receipts are nearly quintupling.

Kanarraville Town Clerk David Ence said recently that the town sought that big increase "just to stop the hemorrhaging of cash" the town suffered in recent years. He said revenue had not met expenses for years, while the town used up a reserve fund — and even depended on donations to make ends meet.

"No one on the town board can remember the last time we had a tax increase. It has been at least 18 years," Ence said of Kanarraville, population 350.

In Woodland Hills, Utah County, where tax revenues are increasing 132.5 percent, Mayor Toby Harding also said it has been several years since the city raised taxes — and the city has no commercial base producing sales tax that might reduce pressure on property tax.

In Garden City, Rich County — where its taxes are increasing 118.8 percent — Councilman Leon Hardt said recently, "We haven't had a tax-rate increase for at least 20 years. And with the growth Garden City has seen, we are just way behind the eight-ball.... We need to build more roads."

(Even with the big increase, Garden City still has the fourth-lowest taxes in the state.)

Last year, several areas in Kane County had the lowest property taxes in the state. But they disappeared from that list this year after the Kane County government ordered a 94.9 percent increase in property tax revenue.

Commission Chairman Mark Habbeshaw said much of that increase is to hire extra employees and to build facilities needed to keep up with growth. He noted its hikes hit the same time as property values increased greatly and that significant tax hikes came from the local school district (18.5 percent) and the city of Kanab (20.1 percent).

In Salt Lake County, the largest increase by a local government was 64.2 percent by the city of Draper (a part of which is also in Utah County). Michael Sears, its finance director, has said it was to help make up for 10 years of not increasing rates, and the money will help replace roads and staff a new fire station.