From Deseret News archives:
Cold facts tend to cool off the ire over taxe
That energy spins a little paddle at the other end, which whacks state lawmakers on the behind, prompting them to write meaningless laws.
The machine was working overtime at the end of last year. Some property owners no doubt wanted to call 911 after getting their notices, to report they had been robbed.
But the machine runs mainly on emotion. It can be stopped cold by facts. A lot of you did see huge property-tax hikes last year, but that doesn't tell the whole story.
The truth is the average Utahn spent much more of his or her income on property taxes in 1965 than today. The truth is that Utahns have among the lowest property-tax rates in the nation. The truth is that state lawmakers passed a law 20 years ago that does a good job keeping a lid on overall rates.
Stephen Kroes, the foundation's president and author of the study, said there are a number of explanations for the big drop. The first is that several tax-revolt movements in the 1970s, typified by passage of California's Proposition 13, led Utah governments to reduce rates. The rates began to inch up again in the 1980s, which led to passage of Utah's Tax Increase Disclosure Act, which is more commonly known today as the Truth in Taxation Law.
Simply put, the law requires all local governments, including school districts, to declare a tax increase if they plan to collect any more overall money from one year to the next, except for that which comes from natural growth. If they do declare a tax increase, they must hold public hearings and publish notices in local newspapers.
The key phrase there, of course, is "overall money." There always are inequities between what individual property owners have to pay.
Recent comments
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Love him or hate him, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch knows how to get attention.
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