OCR Text |
Show Uotnp - Tiox c:'4io Lincoln, Neb. CCWJG Loss Chmges County Bedsimn Faced with a threat of a loss in revenue to Grand County School District in the neighborhood neigh-borhood of $25,000, the Grand County Commission Tuesday capped two days of meetings by agreeing to levy personal property taxes against cars and small trucks under a new formula developed by the Utah State Tax Commission. The action reversed a decision decis-ion of several weeks ago, wherein the County decided that since it did not particularly particular-ly need the additional revenue, it would stick to the old method of taxing vehicles which has been used here for a number of years. Result of the Tuesday action will mean increases in motor vehicle property taxes for nearly all vehicle owners in the county, with owners of small trucks and economy cars carrying the brunt of the increase. Only a few models of automobiles will be valued lower than if the previous schedule had been used. The net result will be increased revenue for the County, which will probably end up in the surplus category at the end of the year. Meeting with the Commission Commis-sion Monday were School Board President Sam Taylor and Superintendent of Schools Bill B. Meador, who told Commissioners they had received re-ceived letters from the State Tax Commission stating that since Grand County was the only county which was not using the new tax schedule, that the difference in revenue collected would be withheld from Grand County School District's payments from the State Uniform School Fund. Currently, the local school district receives about half of its funding from this source. The school officials stated that they were not urging the Commission to do one thing or another, but simply wanted to appraise Commissioners of the letter, and of the impact on the schools finances for the year. On Tuesday, three rrembers of the Tax Commission, including Chairman Vernon L. Holmatv, Commissioners Elea- nor Lee Brennan and Milton R. Yorgeson, accompanied by the staff director of the property tax division, met again with the Commission and explained the reasoning behind their action. County Commission Chairman Chair-man D.L. Taylor told the state officials that since Grand County taxpayers had already suffered increases in personal property taxes this year as a result of the state reappraisal program earlier in the year,' the local Commission felt it was unfair to hit those same taxpayers again with increased taxes on automobiles and trucks. State officials explained explain-ed that since Grand County was the only county in the stale which had decided to use the prior schedule, that the County was undervaluing a portion of its personal property, proper-ty, and that was contrary to state law. The state's only recourse, Chairman Holman explained, would be to withhold with-hold the difference in collections collec-tions from the State Uniform School Fund, which is provided provid-ed by law. Numerous questions involving involv-ing the method of setting property values around the state were discussed by the members of the two commissions. commis-sions. Mr. Holman explained that a number of counties in the state had not been yet revalued, including Salt Lake and Utah Counties. Those two will be done within the next year, he explained, under a mandate from the Utah Legislature Legis-lature which calls for the uniform state valuations for all counties in Utah. A large group of Grand County taxpayers was in attendance at the meeting, and a number spoke following the meeting. Delbert Oliver, local real estate firm operator, stated that since a number of automobile plates had already been sold and the taxes collected since the first of the year, that it would be unfair now to charge those who had not yet paid their auto taxes more than the early purchasers purchas-ers had paid. He went on to tell the state officials that he felt the entire personal property proper-ty tax law was an unfair and ill-planned law, which should be abolished and replaced by either sales or income tax increases. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Austin were also in attendance, attend-ance, and stated that the new automobile taxing schedule was ill-conceived, since it hit persons with economy and older cars much harder than those with large luxury cars. The new schedule uses the National Auto Dealers Assn. blue book as a basis for determining fair market value for a vehicle. Taxes are based then, on a percentage of the fair market value. Economy cars and small trucks have held their values in recent years much better than luxury cars due to the energy crisis and the high cost of gasoline. County Commissioners thanked those in attendance for their comments, and stated that they would attempt to use whatever surpluses might develop in next year's budget, which could be reflected in a decrease in the county mill levy. It was pointed out, however, that the biggest share of total mill levy was for school purposes, and that levy was not controlled by the local school board, but determined by state law. |