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Show Statehouse Report ... Judge Voids Land Valuations But Upholds State Reappraisal BY C. SHARP The long-festering suit filed by the Utah County Commis sion seeking to void powers of the State Tax Commission to overrule and increase property pro-perty valuations set by the county was decided June 13. But the decision by Fourth District Judge Allen B. Soren-son Soren-son satisfied neither party and is in process of appeai to ire State Supreme Court Judge Sorenson voided the valuations on Orem and Prove Pro-ve farm lands set by the Sta'e Tax Commission. The county, rfter hearing appeals, had reduced re-duced these valuations and the county's reduced valuations now apparently will stand. In the same decision. Judge Sorenson held that the Tax Commission does hold power to overrule the county on valuation val-uation matters. Unequal Valuations However, the state's 1"!57 higher land valuations p.re voided because the state failed fail-ed to conform with "uniform and equal" provisions of the state constitution by failing to act promptly. The decision says that land valuations in Provo last year were raised by the state til .2 per cent and those in Orem by 158.7 per cent compaied w"ith 1966. "After eight years' work on l?.nd assessments, the Tax Commission has covered parts of six counties," Judge Sorenson Sor-enson wrote. "If 10 more years are required re-quired to complete the current cyclical program, then very little reflection is required to determine . . . that uniformity uniform-ity and equality cannot be achieved where the reassessment reassess-ment spread covered 18 years," Assails Figures Ransom Quinn, Tax Commission Com-mission chairman, said the information in-formation given to the court on the length of time required to reappraise land was incor- rect. It will take considerably I less time to complete this work, he said. He said a supreme court decision is necessary to settle the issue. Meanwhile the Legislative Council committee on taxation reached some important conclusions con-clusions at its meeting June 12. It was decided that wirb variations in properyt tax valuations val-uations should be corrected before changes in property tax levels are made. County Sand This action was taken following fol-lowing an rppearance before the committee May 16 by the '"asatch Front Tax Study Committee proposing a classified clas-sified property tax. Sen. Kendrick Harward, R-Richfield. R-Richfield. chairman, proposed r. backdoor approach to classified clas-sified pmpery tax. This wcu'd continue the present valuation valua-tion divergence in assessme-.t of different ivpes of property. Such action could not be provided by law since the constitution con-stitution requires equality of assessment, he pointed out. Yet if Utah farm lands, assessed at an average of 11.34 per cent of its cash value, val-ue, were suddenly raised to the 39 per cent fixed bv law, Washington's Resurrection City Ci-ty could be duplicated here, they agreed. Fractional Values Weber County now is assessing assess-ing farm lands at an average of 7.02 per cent of cash value, at the bottom, while Sanpete is valuing farm lands at 24 62 per cent of cash value, the Tax Commission reports. Lewis H. Lloyd, council director, di-rector, said the state subsidizes subsi-dizes undervaluation by extending ex-tending aid to schools without regard to the valuation level. Sen. Harward proposed that commercial properties be valued val-ued at 20 per cent of cash value compared with the cur rent average ot iy.i per cent, j Agriculture lands, he sug- I gested, should be moved to- ward 12.81 per cent. Homes and other properties should be moved from the current average av-erage of 17.47 per cent toward 18 per cent, he said. Utility Valuation Public utilities should be continued at 28 per cent of cash value, he proposed. No action was taken on - Sen. Harward's proposals. Equalization agreed upon by the committee members would be achieved by proposed state-county state-county reappraisal contracts following the so-called Oregon Ore-gon plan.. J. Leon Sorenson, research assistant, presented a list of suggested objectives which were amended but never formally for-mally adopted. Religious and charitable exemptions, ex-emptions, he proposed, should be more carefully defined: veterans' exemptions should be limited to service-connected disabilities, and indigent abatements should be restricted. re-stricted. Mr. Sorenson reported that Arizona which adopted a classified clas-sified property tax effective this year, is having multiple legal and political problems. Two railroads, he said, are asking federal courts to invalidate in-validate the classified property proper-ty tax as discriminatory. |