Reader comments
Utah's property-tax system isn't broken

I agree with all of this. I live in Salt Lake County and agree that the handle it as well as can be expected for property taxes. Often, I think most of the complaints with in SL County are because people upgrade their homes and forget that they also upgrade their taxes.

Still have a problme with being taxed on what someone thinks my property might be worth when I sell it. When you sell or buy that is the price the house is worth. I might think my house is worht $500,00 but if it only sells for $400,00. That is its worth, period. Will the assessor return some of your taxes if you sell for less than they assessed your house. I don't think so.

The sell price should be your tax base, with a 1 or 2% each year for inflation. plus any improvements you have made. The buyer of your house gets the tax base for what he paid for your home. This way everyone has the same tax base, based on what they are willing to pay for a home or can afford to pay for a home.

Utah's property tax system is indeed broken.

Anyone care to elaborate on why property taxes are assessed at all? What's wrong with just having the various government entities go through the same, or some other reasonable process, to determine their financial needs. Then divide that amount up between the adult population in the state and send us each a bill. There still could be a circuit breaker for lower income individuals.
In my opinion, most taxes ought to be abolished in favor of sending to individuals one bill for our individual share to support national, state, and local government functions. I would bet that would put an abrupt reverse to voter apathy in this country!

This is an excellent article! It put the problem in the proper perspective. I hope legislators realize that, instead of proposing legislation designed merely to gain favor. The counties need to follow Salt Lake's lead on this.

Bonnie, remember we are all looking for a tax that someone else pays, that we benefit from. Your head tax would just have everyone else calling foul. The best way to tax is to tax many different sources, that way you touch just about everyone. We all hate taxes, especially the ones we have to pay, those we don't are the good taxes. As long as there is government of any kind there will be good taxes and bad taxes, but never a no tax.

Excellent commentary D-news. I hope that level heads will prevail and that those calling for a Prop 13 type system will not curry favor with those on the Hill.

I'm curious about the fact that the Bountiful area has not been re-assessed for a decade. Is this true? If so, that means those people have been relatively under assessed for the past few years as property values have increased dramatically. If their valuations are only now being realigned with the market, then they have nothing to complain about. They've been paying LESS than they should have for the past several years.

I agree with the others who have said that ALL counties need to get with it and reevaluate every property on a yearly basis. With today's technology, it really shouldn't be that big of a problem. At the very least, they should keep ALL properties on the same schedule. It is clearly unfair to reassess one part of town in one year while allowing others to slide by, especially if it happens to be during a period of fast appreciation.

Back in Utah is exactly right...
It is foolish to allow someone to tax you on what THEY think YOUR property MIGHT be worth.
Would you accept a grade in school on how smart your teacher thought you were?
Tax me on reality...not someone elses hopes and dreams!

The systme is broken because a person can never "live off the land". If I own property, the government can force me off the property I own if I can't afford the taxes. In a sense no one "owns" their property -- the government owns it all.

Let's move toward a "use" tax. Our current system creates incentives for going into to debt and disincentives for saving money. Helping to lead us in a direction that is not economically wise. We should reverse the trend. Let interest provide the incentives to save rather than borrow. Sure borrowing is necessary in cases, but the interest system should make us do the right thing.

Tax me for the money I spend -- tier it if necessary -- make luxury purchases like boats and ATVs get a higher tax rate than necessities like food.

My taxes were increased at least 50% this year in Moab, UT. This is more than quadruple of the previous 4 years. Also, I did not receive a early notice of this increase(pre-Due copy), and have heard others say they had not seen anything but the latest "Taxes Due Bill". Please comment if you failed to receive the early notice, of course now is too late to contest the increase. In these times of late, this sort of increase seems unjustified. I guess I should get used to it?