OCR Text |
Show Assessor & Recorder Concerned About Utah State Annexation Law By ROSELYN KIRK FARMINGTON -- The Davis County Assessor's and Recorder's offices are concerned con-cerned about the passage of a law by the Utah State Legislature in 1976 which they fear could spell problems for those offices. THAYNE Corbridge, county assessor, said that he and county recorder Marguerite Mar-guerite Bourne became aware that the law had been changed just last week. This legislation specifies that any property annexed to the county or any new districts dis-tricts created during the first two months of the calendar year should be placed on the tax rolls for that year. MR. Corbridge said the time frame would make it difficult to go through the evaluation process of placing these properties on the tax evaluation notices which are sent out in May. The law has extended the deadline from Dec. 31 to Jan. 31 and that date can be stretched to February 28 on special appeal to the Utah Tax Commission. Mr. Corbridge said that last year there were no annexations after this date, but annexation of property by the Farmington Pressure Irrigation District in March could - have presented problems if it had occurred in either January or February. COUNTY Attorney Milton J. Hess said the two offices will need to work within the framework of the .law until that law is changed. According Accord-ing to Mr. Corbridge, the plans are to work through the recorders' and assessors' organization or-ganization to attempt to get the law changed. Even if these lobbying organizations or-ganizations are successful, the county may have to deal with the problem in January and February of 1978 since the legislature could not change the law prior to the 1979 session. IN another matter, Mr. Corbridge said that Davis County could get an additional addi-tional $65,000 in rollback property taxes if the State of Utah should take over Antelope An-telope Island as a state park. When Governor Matheon was in the county three weeks ago, he said that surplus state money might make that purchase a possibility. Mr. Corbridge said that the greenbelt taxing procedure might work to the advantage of Davis County if this should happen. At present 40,000 acres of ranch land on Antelope An-telope Island are owned by Amchutz, a Denver livestock company. That company pays taxes under the Greenbelt Amendment which allows land used for agriculture to be taxed at 10 percent of its market value. THE privately owned acreage on Antelope Island has been taxed about $1,400 per. year. If the state should purchase the property or should condemn to purchase it, that would constitute a change in use and the property would be subject to a rollback tax. This tax which is the difference between the tax paid under the Greenbelt and the tax due, based on the actual ac-tual market value would be collected by the county. The rollback tax, the difference between the high and low tax on a five year basis, would be about $63,000, Mr. Corbridge said. IN MOST cases the seller. is forced to pay the rollback tax, Mr. Corbridge said, but he is not sure what the procedure would be if the state condemns con-demns the property. In either case the $65,000 would have to be paid if the area becomes a State Park. The money if collected would be distributed between the taxing entities, which in this case would be the Davis School District and the county, Mr. Corbridge said. SINCE Antelope Island is now in the unincorporated area of the county and is located in no special district, only the school district and the county would receive the monies if they become available through the tax rollback. In 1975. the island was evaluated at $1 13 million. The state presently owns 2600 acres which has been designated desig-nated as a state park, but the legislature has talked for many years of buying the entire en-tire island as a recreation area. Mr. Corbridge pointed out, however, that if the area becomes a state park, it would in (he future be tax-exempt tax-exempt and would not provide any taxing revenue to the county. |