Tax bite less in Utah County

Pity the 150 residents of the tiny town of Vineyard, Utah County. Their property taxes increased more than anywhere else along the Wasatch Front this year — by $327.80 on a $200,000 home, a whopping 26 percent.

Even with that big tax hike, the town still had to cut its budget in half.

Why? Vineyard is home to the now-closed Geneva Steel plant, and Utah County and the state decided to forgive $4.5 million in disputed, back property taxes the plant had been charged. The town once counted on $300,000 a year in tax revenue from Geneva, which provided more than 90 percent of its funds. That has now evaporated.

However, the $1,610 or so Vineyard residents now pay in property tax on a $200,000 home (second highest in Utah County) is still lower than even the average tax of $1,647 in neighboring Salt Lake County.

It demonstrates just how low taxes generally are in Utah County. Even if huge, unexpected increases come, taxes there would likely still be lower than most other Wasatch Front areas.

That emerges through a Deseret Morning News review of records in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties to determine which areas have the lowest and highest taxes, and the lowest and highest tax hikes or cuts, as tax notices arrive this month. Today's story focuses on Utah County.

The average property tax rate in Utah County this year is $1,357 on a $200,000 home, up 4.7 percent.

That is $8 lower than the average in Davis County, $105 lower than Weber County's average and $290 lower than Salt Lake County's.

A total of 42 local governments — the county, cities, school districts and special service districts — charge property tax in Utah County. Half lowered tax rates this year, and half raised them. (See accompanying charts, and extra charts online.)

Because of the overlapping boundaries of those many local governments, the county has created 43 taxing districts. Of them, only two had lower rates this year — both in what county officials said were canyon areas near the Sundance resort. (They benefitted from a large cut of $36.52 on a $200,000 home by the North Fork Special Service District — a 26 percent drop in its tax rates.)

The lowest-taxed area in Utah County was in small, rural Cedar Fort, a town of about 350 people tucked up next to the Oquirrh Mountains in Cedar Valley. Taxes there are $1,183.27 on a $200,000 home.

Cedar Fort Mayor Jeanine Cook said her town works hard to keep taxes low. She could not remember any tax increase during her nine years in public office there, until this year.