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Show Taxes up; not really By JUDY JENSEN Ed i tor NORTH SALT LAKE Twenty senior citizens attended a recent city council meeting to hear a discussion on the proposed tax rate increase in the city's 1990-91 fiscal budget. City Manager Collin Wood told the group of what he termed the "confusion" created by the law passed in 1985 commonly called the Truth in Taxation law. The law requires cities to advertise a tax increase in-crease if a city chooses to keep the same tax rate as the year before instead in-stead of the Certified Tax Rate suggested sug-gested by the state. SEE TAXES PG.A-3 tion figures for these cities. They also compare the county's assessed valuation and population to Weber County's information. Following the public hearing in North Salt Lake, the city council voted to unanimously approve the 1990-91 budget, which included the elusive tax increase. growth is to adopt the same tax rate instead of lowering it to the amount suggested by the state. Wood said he had been told by the state tax commission that one of the reasons Davis County cities have this problem is that the county has a conservative tax assessor, which led one of the citizens to remark, "Have you even seen a conservative tax man?' That brought a round of laughter from the group. The assessor determines an assessed valuation for each entity. The certified tax rate is then determined deter-mined based on those figures. Since 1986, when the tax rate was adopted, most cities have stayed with the certified rate. However, this year many chose to stay with last year's rate. This has led to the confusion for taxpayers. The charts on this page indicate the tax rates for four of the cities affected af-fected by the change this year, and the assessed valuations and popula- Taxes CONT. FROM PG.A-1 North Salt Lake is only one of many cities in the county facing public tax increase hearings to explain ex-plain there will not actually be any change in the amount of tax a taxpayer tax-payer is assessed by the city. Wood explained that the city has chosen to adopt the same tax rate that was in effect last year. The fact that rate, .002447, is higher than the 1990 Certified Tax Rate of .00241 6, set by the state, meant that the city must advertise a tax increase. Wood told the residents that the city felt it needed to keep the same tax rate this year in order to help offset of-fset the costs of new growth within the city, something he said is not done by the state formula. "We agree that the property taxes from a new home should go back to the city, but the state tax commission says no," said Wood. He explained the only way for the city to take advantage of new Annual Property Assessments Davis County Weber County Yeqr Assessed Value Pop. Year Assessed Value Pop. 1986 $3,031,200,767 180,100 1986 $3,345,011,515 158,800 1987 $3,200,390,341 185,526 1987 $3,386,240,018 159,945 1988 $3,264,696,802 188,663 1988 $3,392,407,200 160,200 1989 $3,378,495,173 188,055 1989 $3,523,030,766 161,700 Selected City Assessments Bountiful Farmington Year Assessed Value Pop. Year Assessed Value Pop. 1986 $663,996,704 35,829 1986 $138,900,415 8,053 1987 $702,570,627 36,253 1987 $152,174,540 8,429 1988 $731,164,761 36,539 1988 $156,848,223 8,669 1989 $746,096,656 36,539 1989 $169,298,085 8,669 North Salt Lake Syracuse Year Assessed Value Pop. Year Assessed Value Pop. 1986 $191,347,727 6,396 1986 $58,865,486 5,467 1987 $207,057,558 6,399 1987 $60,740,163 5,530 1988 $195,826,462 6,402 1988 $62,727,770 5,628 1989 $198,064,800 6,402 1989 $64,094,607 5,628 Chevron Oil annexed to county Davis County CertfiedAdopted Tax Rates 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 Davis .003049 .002888 .002835 .002835 .002751 County .003049 .002888 .002835 .002835 .002982 Bountiful .001832 .001789 .001783 .001783 .001702 .001832 .001789 .001783 .001783 .001783 Farmington .001748 .001695 .001660 .001660 .001577 .001748 .001695 .001660 .001660 .001660 North Salt .002328 .002275 .002373 .002480 .002416 Lake .002328 .002275 .002373 .002447 .002447 Syracuse .001207 .001179 .001148 .001148 .001115 .001207 I .001179 .001148 .001148 .001148 Certified Rate Adopted Rate The top left chart shows a pattern of conforming to state certified cer-tified tax rates until this year when officials approved rate increases. in-creases. The top right chart lists the assessed property values of cities and compares Davis County's value with neighboring Weber County over the past four years. The bottom chart shows the state certified tax rate for the county and the adopted tax rate. It also indicates the amount of money to be raised by the major county entities. Davis County 1 990 Property Tax Rate Summary Sx 1 990 Approved 1 990 Certified Bote Dollars Rate Dollars General Fund .001970 $6,580,000 .001738 $5,804,000 Paramedic .000249 $832,000 .000249 $832,000 Health .000209 $698,000 .000209 $698,000 Flood Control .000054 $180,000 .000055 $184,000 Property Tax Collection .000500 $1,670,000 .000500 $1,670,000 Bond Sinking Fund .000960 $3,200,000 .000960 $3,200,000 Total All County .003942 $13,160,000 .003711 $12,388,000 Library (all county less Kaysville) .000422 $1,359,000 .00422 $1,359,000 Special Services Area (unincorporated area) .000956 $151,000 .000956 $151,000 Total County Property Tax $14,670,000 $13,898,000 Source: Davis County Auditor |