Legislators eyeing property-tax reform ideas

LAYTON — Property taxes are sure to be a hot topic during the 2008 Legislative session, which begins Jan. 21.

Already, Utah lawmakers are planning to sponsor about 15 bills concerning property-tax reform after soaring property values stuck residents in various counties with impossible tax bills.

One of the hardest hit areas was Bountiful, much of which had not been appraised in 10 years. Residents of Huntsville, where skyrocketing home prices from speculative investors drove assessed values through the roof, have mockingly put their town up for sale.

Stories of property-tax increases of hundreds of dollars are easy to find, and legislators and county officials are getting the message: There's a problem.

But how to solve that problem has them perplexed.

During a Monday meeting in Layton between lawmakers and county officials from across the state, they agreed that knee-jerk laws may not keep property taxes from taxing people out of their homes.

Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, is planning on at least four bills to offer relief to residents hit hardest by rising property values.

One of his bills would expand the 45 percent exemption for properties larger than an acre. Currently, residential property is taxed at 55 percent of its market value, no matter the size of the land.

Another bill would increase the circuit breaker exemption, which families making $26,941 or less can apply for if they meet certain requirements.

Froerer said he plans to run a bill that changes the procedure for assessing property. Currently, property must be assessed every five years and assessors often accomplish that by assessing 20 percent of their respective counties each year.

That means one-fifth of a county will see a spike in property values every year.

Froerer proposes that values be based on a rolling average of the past five years and that values can't increase past a set amount.

He's also toying with the idea that property taxes with school districts could be done away with, and instead a 2 percent sales-tax increase could be locally instated to fund the districts' capital projects, which property taxes currently fund.

Utah County Commissioner Steve White proposed that property value increases be capped at 5 percent a year.

That way, he said, it would take 17 to 20 years for property values to double.