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Show 4 The Newspaper Wednesday. November 26. 1980 Page 3 In Kamas tJ3 Taxp ay er Revolt Gets Results November Who says you can't fight City Hall? A mini-rebellion by a group of Kamas taxpayers announced only last week already has produced results. Kamas City Clerk Bonnie Lassche said Tuesday that the city unintentionally had overcharged local property owners by about $23,000, because of a misunderstanding misunderstan-ding between herself and the county recorder. According to Mrs. Lassche, the misunderstanding misunderstan-ding involved money going toward the retirement of bonds on the city's water arid sewer system. The mistake resulted in the city setting the levy at 19 mills, about 6 mills more than was necessary. She pointed out that the city budget was approved by the state auditor's office, and that the mill rate was okayed by the State Tax Commission. The state somehow overlooked the discrepancy in the figures. Rather than spend the extra ex-tra funds, the city plans to deposit them in a special account, ac-count, to be used to reduce the mill levy in 1981. Mrs. Lassche estimated that the surplus would cut next year's city levy, barring un-forseen un-forseen expenditures, to about 8 mills. The $23,000 discrepancy came to light last week when a group of disgruntled local taxpayers, led by Dale Leavitt and Phillip "Butch" Mitchell, started doing their own research in the county records in Coalville. In a letter let-ter to the editor printed last week in The Newspaper, the group charged that the city of Kamas was collecting Winter Lodestar $24,000 more in 1980 than it had in 1979, an increase of 56 percent. Mitchell and Leavitt noted that, in the year following a revaluation, taxing entities are limited to a six percent increase. In part because of the error in the city tax, Kamas residents have been howling about what they see as exor-. bitant increases in their property taxes. "The tax on my property went up from $480 to more than $1,000," Mitchell told The Newspaper. As a protest against the tax hikes, a number of local taxpayers have decided to withhold their payments until un-til they get some explanations. ex-planations. "The thing we're trying to do is find out where the increase in our taxes is going." Mitchell said. He indicated that the six-mill six-mill error in Kamas was only part of the problem. "The school district really hammered us," he said. According to Mitchell, the group had asked the school boards in both the North and South Summit Districts to explain where the extra revenues were going, but without result. "The people in our community com-munity are gathering up their taxes in $10,000 increments," in-crements," he said. "We're getting together as individuals, in-dividuals, and we're putting our money in time securities." Mitchell said he has been getting 10 or 12 calls a day since the letter appeared last week. "People are just irate in this end of the county." Some complaints have focused on mistakes in valuation, such as classifying agricultural land as residential, or miscounting miscoun-ting the number of rooms in houses. He recognizes that some people will ignore the boycott and pay their taxes anyway. To these people, he suggests paying under protest: that maneuver will prevent the taxing bodies from using the money for as long as six months, unless the issue is resolved in the meantime. When contacted Tuesday by The Newspaper, South Summit Superintendent Val Edrington argued that the district's mill levy is controlled con-trolled largely by state statute. "The problem, as I see it, is in the equalization program that the state legislature passed in 1969," he said. Edrington explained that, under the provisions of the 1969 law, each district is guaranteed by the state a certain amount of money per student per year for the maintenance and operation (M & O) budget. In return, each district must agree to levy a 24-mill property tax to help pay the cost of the M & O budget. He pointed out that, in most districts, the amount of money raised by the 24-mill tax is less than the total needed for the M & O budget. When this situation occurs, the state makes up the difference. dif-ference. Last year, the local South Summit mill levy covered 60 percent of the M & O budget; the other 40 percent came from the state. Edrington said that some allowances are made in a revaluation year: the South Summit District was allowed to reduce its M & O mill levy this year to 20.26. However, that levy must be brought back up to 24 mills within a three-year period: Because of the revaluation, the amount raised by 20.26 mills this year is greater than that raised by 24 mills last year. Edrington estimated that the local share of the district's M & O budget has risen from 60 percent to 80 percent. Also included in the school mill levy is money for capital improvements. Edrington said this portion of the tax dropped from 12 mills last year to 10.91 mills this year. Residents of the North Summit School Distr also are up in arms about An tax burden. In spite of the revaluation, the district mill levy has dropped less than one-tenth of a mill: from 38.14 to 38.05. . According to County Assessor Leo Frazier, many local residents are paying a bigger share of the property tax burden within the district because of a dramatic decline in revenue from industry and utilities. "We lost about $8 million in the county," he said, "and most of it was in the North Summit School District." Frazier said that revenue from oil production in Summit Sum-mit County has dropped off noticeably. "Evidently, they just didn't have the production produc-tion in 1979 that they did in 1978," he said. In spite of the loss of oil revenue, there was a slight increase in the total valuation of the North Summit Sum-mit School District: from $63 million in 1979 to $67 million in 1980. (EAILffiNIMJI! Eagles vs. Indianapolis; pro hockey ; 8 p.m., Salt Palace t r' ' - fit : '!.!. mt 'w m nun nrni. iiin,in.ii, mi mm,,-mmmniiiii Wiiin.iirrTiiw 1 CTN t7 1 1 dD Sunday Santa Claus Express, train ride on the Heber Creeper; noon & 6 p.m., Heber Free Kolfing demonstration; 1-2 p.m.. Prospector Athletic Club Wednesday Miners vs. Duchesne high school basketball ; 6 p.m.. Park High Miners at East High ; high school wrestling; 6:30 p.m.. Salt Lake City Mixed Doubles, Park City Racquet Club; 7-9 p.m. Free X-C Skiing Clinic; 7 p.m.. Memorial Bldg. Planning Commission meeting; 7:30p.m., Prospector Square Conference Center Tuesday Bridge game, 7:30 p.m., Snow flower condominium No. I community room Thursday Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much! Saturday St. Mary's Fall Festival at the Memorial Building 1st Ever Turkey Gobble X-C Skiing event; 10 a.m. Park City Golf Course Santa Claus Express train ride on the Heber Creeper; noon & 6 p.m., Heber Wednesday Festival of Trees: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.. Salt Palace; throuL'h Dec. 6 I Eagles vs. Birmingham; pro hockey ; S p.m.. Salt Palace Experience the Color of Park City In addition to the daily thrills associated with publishing The Newspaper, we are especially exclfedj this week because the winter edition of The Lodestar has just arrived from the printer. prin-ter. What's a lodestar? It's a point of reference by which one directs his course, like the North Star. To us, The Lodestar represents an incredible in-credible effort by a small group of people who turn a frightening disarray of stories and photos into something we hope will be entertaining to residents and visitors alike. This particular edition of the Lodestar marked a turning tur-ning point for us. It was our introduction to the use of full color and glossy, "slick" paper, which enabled us to reproduce color photographs from both local artists and advertisers effectively. We are most proud to display the work of local artist Marianne Cone on the cover of the magazine, an original watercolor that shows a nightime scene of Park City at its intimate, charming' best. Inside, we offer 23 stories, including a list of 74 things to do in and around town, a closer look at resident Blanche Fletcher, helicopter skiing, hot air ballooning, winter camping, snowflake formation, how ski lift tickets are named, and where Dick Robinson is tracking the spirit of Bigfoot. There's also a restaurant and bar guide and a calendar of events. For the uninitiated, producing a magazine required close attention to detail. As we rushed to the printer with a stack of 104 pages and piles of photographs, we crossed our fingers that nothing would be 1, Sl a t j i St i 4 M,2L Lit! f "1 A 5 IJOQ tint's . il ? S ff '! f !:?! f -"VTr-., f bMv-V m overlooked. When the tirst copy came back hot off the press, we discovered that we made a mistake for which we would like to apologize to one of our contributors. Local resident Al Bronston offered us a stunning photograph of a solitary cross-country skier making his way across a pristine field of snow. We gratefully accepted it, then gave credit to the photo to another contributor. con-tributor. We're sorry Al. We're all bruised here from kicking each other. For those who are curious to see M s photo and the rest of Lodestar, they will be available at numerous locations throughout town in the next week. We appreciate comments from readers so that we can continue to improve Lodestar. Uliritlhciay Stairs December 2 Sharon Aurit December 3 La Verne Moser Stephan Connett :8wBL (I f i feS$:::S:$siiS::5 If you wish to be listed in our Professional Services please call 649-9014. DENTAL The Dental Clinic Dr. Richard Barnes North Park Avenue across from Golf Course Call for appointment We're Open Daily, Evenings & Saturdays 649-6332 For emergency call 649-6786 Park City Dental Associates Pamela K. Hilbert, D.D.S. family dentistry Richard E. Randle, D.D.S. , M.S. practice limited to orthodonties Located in the Brent C. Hill Building across from the Holiday Inn Office hours 9-5 Monday through Friday Saturday by appointment 649-6066 Dane Q. Robinson, D.D.S. Craig R. Bergquist, D.D.S. Family Dentistry Reconstructive Dentistry 613 Main Street In the Design Coalition Building Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call for Appointment 649-6116 CHIROPRACTIC Dr. Kelly B. Jar vis 906 S. Main, Suite 3, Heber, Utah 654-3032 or 654-4468 i SPEECH PATHOLOGY i; Patricia P. Korogi, Ph. D. Disorders of Speech and Hearing Salt Lake and Park City Offices 649-7609 Office Hours by Appointment MEDICAL DOCTORS: Park City Health Center Holiday Village Shopping Mall Robert J. Evers, M.D. Family Practice Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D. Family Practice Robert T. Winn, M.D. Pediatrics Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays 9 a.m. to Noon Office appointments and 24 hour emergency care Call 649-7640 Meadowview Medical Group Park Meadows Plaza, Suite 100 1500 Highway 248 E. Dale A. Hogen, M.D. Family Practice William Ledlie, M.D. Family Practice M-F, 9-5, 649-4002 Sat. 9-12, 24 hr. emergency service OPTOMETRISTS;; Dr. John Gleave 160 S. 100 w. Heber City, Utah Eye Examination By Appointment Contacts & Frames Available 654-1863 Park City Vision Center RobertS. Briggs, O.D. Open daily 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. The Hill Professional Building 750 East Highway 248 P.O. Box 2549 Park City, Utah 84060 649-5200 ATTORNEY'S AT LAW? Palmer & Saunders P.C. Suite 204 Silver King State Bank Building Call for Appointment Office 801-649-6653 ' Home 801-649-7475 |