Salt Lake County property tax billings hit $1 billion for the first time

SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time, the Salt Lake County treasurer's office has sent out more than $1 billion in property tax bills.

"The more we have to collect, the more responsibility we have," Salt Lake County Treasurer Wayne Cushing said, reporting that collections are up this year, too.

Through Wednesday, he said the county has collected $968 million of what's owed, compared to $937 million last year, with delinquencies down $6.5 million to $47.5 million.

The billings are up from $991 million in 2010, the result of tax increases by entities in the county, including West Valley City, the Salt Lake City Library, and the Granite, Salt Lake and Jordan school districts.

In Utah County, property tax bills hit more than $297.5 million, up about $5 million from 2010, but nowhere near the $1 billion mark.

"I wish we were up in those same numbers as Salt Lake County," Utah County Treasurer Robert Kirk said. "We could raise our taxes, too, to get to that point, but then everybody would move out of Utah County."

Kirk said Utah County also is collecting more of the property taxes owed, $5 million more this year.

"Our numbers are up. It's not a blockbuster by any means, but we're up about 2 percent over last year's collections," he said.  "I just get the feeling people are more in tune with paying their taxes this year."

Davis County Treasurer Mark Altom said property tax billings this year total about $203 million, up from just over $190 million in 2010, largely because of a school district tax increase.

Altom, who has served as Davis County's treasurer for more than 19 years, said the increase is not an indicator of how the economy is faring.

"They're not a barometer," Altom said.

Because of the state's truth in taxation laws that set how much can be collected without going through an extensive public hearing process, he said it takes a tax increase by an entity within a county to boost revenues.

But with counties collecting property taxes for the entities within their boundaries, Altom said taxpayers assume any tax increases are coming from the county itself.

"That's a huge misperception on the part of many, many taxpayers," he said. "Since the county collects it, we get the quote unquote blame."

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