Why you should appreciate your property tax bill

Maybe property taxes come due at the end of November because the government figures people will be in a thankful mood, with their stomachs full of turkey and their minds sedated with tryptophan.

If so, we'll need a ton of turkey this year.

In a recent editorial board meeting with Salt Lake County Assessor Lee Gardner, I joked that it was remarkable to meet a man who actually volunteered to run for the office. In a normal year, people hate property taxes above all others. And this was no normal year. By the assessor's own statistics, property values in Salt Lake County alone shot up 22.3 percent.

But Gardner's job — and that of others who understand the tax system — is to explain that this isn't necessarily why individual tax bills went up, nor is it a sign that Utah's property tax laws are broken. Specifically, key state lawmakers, who soon may be entertaining needless, and in some cases harmful, changes to the law, need to understand this.

First, however, it's important to understand why you hate property taxes so much. It's the same reason I happen to love them.

Whoa! Take your hands off your keyboards for a second. Before you begin that nasty e-mail, let me explain. You hate property taxes because, if you own a home, you get a detailed bill every year. If your mortgage company doesn't collect money from you each month to pay this, you have to actually sit down and write out a check, and that hurts.

And it should hurt. This awareness forces you to become an engaged citizen.

You pay a lot more each year in sales taxes. If you didn't have to pay these at the register and if some giant computer kept track of your purchases and sent you a bill every fall, you'd set down the turkey and look for a pumpkin pie to throw at someone.

Income taxes actually do come to you in a lump sum each year in April. But because the government collects this money all year and holds it interest-free, you're somehow tricked into thinking it's a wonderful thing when a portion of it is refunded to you.

But the property tax, like a homework assignment or a plate of day-old macaroni, is what it is. And what it is, is complicated.

Utah lawmakers dealt with this complication years ago by passing a law known as truth in taxation. Simply put, it prohibits local governments from receiving any more revenue from one year to the next — other than because of growth — without declaring a tax increase and holding public hearings. But your tax bill is based on the value of your home, and that is something constantly in flux.