Davis commissioners deny military housing manager's property-tax appeal

FARMINGTON — If taxes this year are anything like 2008, the military housing manager at Hill Air Force Base will pay more than $275,000 in property taxes.

Davis County commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday to continue taxing Boyer Hill Military Housing, which manages about 1,000 military homes on base, denying the company's appeal on property taxes for about 625 of those homes.

Robert Lochhead, an attorney for Boyer Hill, argued that the properties in the housing area south of 6th Street should be tax-exempt because the U.S. Air Force owns the land the homes sit on, and the other 375 homes are tax-exempt.

Boyer Hill President Mark Pace said Hill Air Force Base exhibits such tight controls on the housing — through rules governing buildings, construction time lines, building materials, rent, renters, access to the base, cash flows and operations — that the base effectively owns the buildings.

Boyer Hill is merely a private company that won a contract to replace aging housing with new homes, as well as manage those properties, because it could do it faster and more efficiently than the Air Force could, Pace said.

But Davis County deputy civil attorney Craig Bott said the Air Force's own contract with the company expressly states that Boyer Hill, similar to any landlord, should expect to be subject to state and local taxes.

It's because of an agreement between Utah and the United States when the Air Force acquired land to build Hill Air Force Base.

The first agreement in 1943 gave the Air Force exclusive jurisdiction over the land, meaning the land was tax-exempt. But when the Air Force acquired additional land in 1997, Bott said, it had concurrent jurisdiction with the state, meaning the land could be subject to taxes — a statement reiterated in Hill's contract with Boyer Hill.

Pace said the taxes have become a burden to Boyer Hill, which is charged with constructing and maintaining the homes.

"The property doesn't pose a burden to the taxpayers of Davis County," Lochhead added.

But Bott argued that residents of Hill Air Force Base don't live in a bubble. They drive on county and city roads, he said. If someone is arrested off base and put in jail, it's the county's jail.

Hill residents also vote in local elections, and Boyer Hill's property records are maintained in the county recorder's office. The county assessor maintains values on the properties, as well.