Tax bite taking heavy toll in Utah

Utahns may have lost a bundle in the stock market meltdown. Higher gasoline prices drained wallets for months. Now adding to such challenges is that 81 local governments in Utah have imposed property tax increases.

News of that is arriving in property tax notices around the state — with some governments tripling rates, or increasing their portion of property taxes by more than $250 on a $250,000 home. Property taxes are due on Nov. 30.

Utah Tax Commission records show that 81 of nearly 600 local governments in the state went through a "truth-in-taxation" process to raise property tax revenues (not rates) beyond what they collected the previous year (not counting money from new growth). They had to advertise proposed hikes and hold hearings on them.

Most of the cities, counties, school districts, water districts, fire districts and even cemetery districts that raised taxes say they need the extra cash just to keep up with rising fuel costs, growth and higher prices for basic services — and not for any big, new projects.

The biggest hike, by dollar amount, is a $254 increase on a $250,000 home by Iron County for its unincorporated area. It formed a new "municipal services district" there. It is designed to end any "double taxation" where residents living in cities might be subsidizing citylike services delivered by the county in unincorporated areas.

"This is a question of leveling the (property-tax) playing field," Iron County Assessor Dennis Ayers earlier told the Deseret News. "I have some employees here who live in the (unincorporated) county and they are not happy about it. But they understand that it has to be done," or the county could be sued for a double-taxation situation.

The second-highest property tax by dollar amount is a $165 hike by Saratoga Springs in Utah County.

Saratoga Springs city manager Ken Leetham said earlier, "We've been a city for about 10 years, and we've never raised taxes. ... This is mostly to catch up." The city has increased in size from a few hundred residents initially to about 15,500 now.

"In addition to costs going up for fuel and expanding services, we really need to make that tax adjustment" for not raising taxes for so many years, Leetham said.

Among the highest increases by percentage is a 204 percent increase — in other words a tripling of taxes — by the city of Riverton. Its share of property taxes increases by nearly $64 on a $250,000 home.

City officials said it was needed to fill gaps in city revenue caused by evaporating new construction. Last year, it had about 1,000 residential building permits — but expected that to drop to 100 this year.