Mobile home owners could get tax break

Owners of motorized mobile homes, some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, will get a property tax break if senators agree with House members and approve HB53.

Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, says her bill is needed because Utah's property tax rate on such large vehicles is too high, especially when measured against the tax rate of surrounding states.

Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, said: "This is a very mobile population" that could leave Utah and legally register and pay property tax in other states.

Shurtliff said one of her constituents bought an $80,000 vehicle in 1999 and since then has paid nearly $10,000 in registration and property tax.

HB53 would lower the current 1.5 percent tax rate (placed on a vehicle's fair market value) to 1.25 percent in two years, down to 1 percent the year after. Her bill would cost local governments (who get property taxes) $610,000 in two years and $1.2 million by fiscal 2008-2009.

The bill passed overwhelmingly Tuesday in the House and now goes to the Senate.