Reader comments
Property tax relief proposed

I really don't mind paying more in property tax as long as it will go to public education and raise our teachers' salaries.

People that build these million dollar homes and then complain about their taxes are just ridiculous.

Get some priorities.

Also in this amendment it should grandfather property values on homes to purchase price until sold. Taxes based on assumption of value and locally sold properties is not a guarantee all homeowners can also get the same value out of every property in the neighborhood. Until a property is sold the real vaue is not known and many properties are held and lived in for many years, like the elderly, retired, and those on fixed low incomes. To tax the elderly out of their homes and property serves no purpose and places many individuals at the mercy of other taxpayers as dependents and wards of the state. This is an injustice to those that have dedicated their lives for the good of the community then turn around and tax them out of their homes. The market values of commercial property's should not be compared to homeowners property and taxed at the same level of commercial properties. Giving the county asessor, a one man taxing authority, the ability to raise taxes by raising values needs to be addressed as a serious issue. Taxation is by representation, our legislators, not the whim of one agency's,(the assesor) ability to generate windfall taxation.

It's about time !!!
RETIRED and HURTING

This legislation is about 10 years too late to provide much in the way of relief. The big upward price spikes are done for a while.

"I don't mind", until you are the one building the million dollar home and paying high taxes I dont think you can speak for those people. The lower the taxes, the more people spend to boost our economy. Its easy to tell people to get their priorities straight when you arent the one paying the high taxes.

This is a baby step compared to the Jarvis, bless his sole, ammendment in California in 1977-78. As much as I see and hear about schools...They waste the money in administration and the building of castles for schools...These are tough to maintain and are very costly...They need to conserve as well. Teacher's salaries should be the only issue...It's about time that a Jarvis ammendment be sought after as a tax-payer's rebellion...Our legislators will only give it a baby step at a time.

Revisiting the way property taxes are assessed is probably wise public policy. However, it may have very uncomfortable unintended consequences. There are just 4 ways to fund government: property taxes, income taxes, sales & excise taxes, and direct fees for service. Which one of the others goes up when the property tax is held down? Likely, all 3 with sales taxes leading the pack since income taxes are earmarked for education.

I agree there should be some mechanism to 'freeze' the amount of property taxes paid by certain qualified elderly or low income persons so they can afford to remain in their homes. It could be in the form of a recorded lien payable upon sale or transfer (except to a qualified trust) of the property.

Perhaps more to the point, most governments and school districts are beginning their budget development processes in January. More informed citizen input might help them pare back and reprioritize those expenditures dependent upon property taxes.

My experience has shown that most citizens complaining in November about property taxes have no time to be bothered in the spring when their voices could really be heard.

My house is almost to one million. well not quite but $650,000. I don't mind paying the taxes. There are a lot of people out there that need the money. Teachers sure need more than they are getting.

I pay plenty of property taxes. My neighbors that build "bigger and better" than the last, then complain about their taxes make me laugh. The three SUVs, boat, and vacation home aren't enough. They have to whine and complain over paying an increase that might actually get beginning teachers off of food stamps and free lunch programs for their kids at school.

I don't mind. As long as it goes to the right place.

I don't live in a million dollar home and my taxes went up last year 55%. If I did live in a million dollar home then I'd probably be able to afford such an increase.

This year, several acres of sage brushy hillside property in the family trust had a 600% (not a typo, that's SIX-HUNDRED percent) increase in property tax. No wonder people are selling agri-land, and sage brushy hillside to developers so they in turn can build those million dollar houses. Are there such things as "starter homes" today?

Local property taxes are not counted in the States' pot of money called Weighted Per Pupil(WPU). That is WHY we have the lowest WPU in the nation! Is anyone else upset about this? The legislature cannot and will not require accountibility for school funding because of conflict of interest. No other state employee can also be a legislature. Teachers can and do, and thus lobby and look out for their special interest, education. Ax for teacher salaries, the mask is off, and we can now find out how poor they are Not, using the utahsright websight. Only first few years, and smalltown teachers have low wages.

Time for something like a Prop 13 here in Utah.

The assessed value of a home should be based on purchase price and it should remain fixed until it is again sold, except perhaps in the case of homes owned by non-natural-persons (aka trusts). A home owner--regardless of age or income--should NOT be faced with higher taxes simply because the market suggests his home has increased in value. If a taxing entity needs more money, let them convince the voting public to approve a rate increase on property taxes.

I don't even have a problem with impact fees at time of new construction.

But it just isn't right to have property taxes going up every year without even needing a vote on the matter. I don't know any of us whose incomes are rising as fast as home values have risen the last few years. Retired or not, rising property taxes can put the hurts on a lot of homeowners. A family's home should NOT be at ever increasing risk to the tax man. It should the one asset we most protect in the interest of family and community stability.

Now that prices have spiked and heading down, the proposal is to go to a moving average. That will slow the tax decreases due to lower home value. Sounds like the legislators are trying to keep taxes as high as possible for as long as possible.

"Disgusted", I partially agree with the bad timing. And add, a rolling average of bugus assessed market values is a rolling average of bugus information. GIGO (garbage in garbage out). Statistically smoothing immoral taxation of unrealized capital gains is no answer, Senator Stowell. Drop your rolling BS and seriously consideration "acquisition value" taxation (prop 13 type legislation). Everything being proposed only continues the Realtor driven MLS false and inflationary property valuations. The "Current market value" scheme is the disease, and has been dropped by virtually every State in the Union. Thanks to Kohler, Kyle, and Ostermiller, the three Realtor lobbyists, our property taxes and the future of Utah remain in serious doubt. School Districts and teacher shortages; teachers actuallly fear new hires becasue the Union will require more administrators which grossly suck up massive salaries denying teacher raises. But when teacher retirement is considered they are actually overpaid, yet another scam fostered upon us innocent suckers called the public. Where is Ronald Reagan when we NEED him to break up the NEA/UEA. Remember PATCO?

band-aid, band-aid ..... the capitol hill gang cant do anything ...
but 'we the people' can do something,,, utah is a signatory initiative state .. just like the voucher petition forced a ballot vote .. so 'we the people' can force a property tax petition and change the property tax assessment ourselves .. totally by-passing the capitol hill gang all together ...
either they step up to the plate and change the property tax assessment to the original purchase price .. or 'we the people' will !!!
nothing fair about me having to pay increased taxes on my property because a housing development or a mansion went in at the end of my street ... nothing fair about me only able to buy a certain amount of house but be taxed higher and higher .. my wage determined what i could buy .. why doesnt my wage determine my property taxes ? my property taxes went up 52% this year, my employer didnt give a pay raise even close to that .. if my wife didnt work i would have a house to live in ... enough is enough
'we the people' will make the property tax law now

yes it is time for prop 13 from calif in 1978 ... my house value is only worth what i paid for it when i bought it .. when i sell it then it has increased or decreased value depending the time of the sale ... just because others around me are buying and selling shouldnt have a direct bearing on my property taxes ...
utah .. we can and should by-pass capitol hill and create a petition for a property tax of 1% of the original purchase price ....
screw rolling averages, screw 5% caps, forget capitol hill's line in the sand ...
utah registered voters we can and need to take control on this issue ... we DONT need capitol hill on this issue at all .. and apparently they arent listening to us ... so forget them ... let's get our property assessments where they should be and what we can afford because that is all the money we had to buy the stupid place to begin with ...