Tax data revised for a new district

OREM — Residents living in the area of a proposed new school district that would be carved from the Alpine District will feel less of a property tax hit than previously reported if the new district is eventually approved.

A report released last month by the committee studying the proposed district had projected a 90 percent increase in the school portion of the property tax by the year 2010 for land within the proposed Pioneer School District, which would include the Lehi High School attendance boundaries. Those figures were provided by a group of Brigham Young University graduate students who had been commissioned by a county-appointed study committee to determine the costs associated with forming a new, smaller district.

The new figure adopted this week is a 40 percent increase in school property taxes.

School property taxes make up 60 percent of a resident's total property tax bill. The projected increase would translate into about a 24 percent property tax increase overall, or around $98 a year for a $100,000 home.

Committee members had asked students from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management to provide them with figures for the projected taxes. The first number submitted by the students was calculated using projected increased enrollment numbers but stable property values.

The new number takes anticipated property value growth into account.

The study committee is scheduled to submit a feasibility report to the Utah County Commission on June 29. Commissioners will study the report and determine whether the issue will be put on the November election ballot. If placed on the ballot, a majority of voters living within the current Alpine School District boundaries — which essentially includes all of Utah County north and west of Orem — would have to vote in favor of the plan for it to become effective.

Utah County Commissioner Jerry Grover said the issue has a good chance of reaching the ballot.

"I haven't made my decision yet, but since it (the proposal) came off the petition process, I'm more inclined to put it on the ballot," he said. "That means it's got some impetus."

Grover doesn't expect the projected tax increase to have a big impact on the vote.

"I don't expect that it's going to require a lot of work (to decide if it goes on the ballot)," he said. "I think, fundamentally, that everyone knew that the new district would have some increased costs. That's no big shock. The real ballot question is what are the other issues people are concerned about and are those more important than some cost issue."