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Show 8-14 Rise in Garfield Taxpayers Must Dig Deeper ' With Hike in Property Tax Local property taxes probably will rise between 4 percent and 10 percent on the average this' year as a result of a recent Supreme Court decision and legislation enacted by the special session designed to moderate this decision. This was the opinion of Utah Fundation, the private tax research organization, in its analysis of the court decision and the special session legislation approved last month. A decision of the State Supreme Court on March 13, 1984 ruled that the practice of basing local property assessments on historic 1978 values rather than current values was unconstitutional. The ruling would have required that local property valuations be raised by 46 percent, and this meant that local property owners would have faced a substantial increase in their 1984 property tax bills. Legislative action taken by the special session of the 1984 Legislature, however, greatly moderated the effect of this court decision. Instead of increasing local valuations by 46 percent, assessments will be raised by only 12 percent. Moreover, the shift in the property tax burden from centrally-assessed (state) property to locally-assessed property was reduced from $74.5 million to $14.8 million. Even though the new legislation does moderate the impact of the Supreme Court decision, the Foundation study indicates that most local property owners still will HWW llftil. f ml III I lll'l ii i HIM h ! PS l.- Senior ladies serve refreshments prepared by senior citizens in new center built With volunteer labor. More than 1,350 hours went to complete new facility. be faced with some increase in their property taxes this year. While the exact amount of the increase will not be known until the new assessments and tax rates are set in June, the study estimates that the Increase could range between 4 percent and 10 percent for the state as a whole. The amount of the increase will depend on the actions taken by local taxing units when they establish their tax rates for this year. The "best case" scenario is based on the assumption that local units will not increase the amount of property tax revenue obtained in 1984. The "worst case" is based on the assumption that all local units would increase the property tax revenue by 6 percent as permitted by law. The Foundation analysis indicates that the average property tax on a home with a current market value of $73,000 in Garfield County was about $359 last year. After applying the 1984 changes, the property tax on this home could rise by 8.1 percent to $388 under the "best case" assumption or be increased by 14.5 percent to $411 under the "worst case" assumption. For individual counties, the amount of the tax increase for local property owners could range from 2.1 percent in Washington County to 11.0 percent in Emery County under the "best case" assumption and from 8.3 percent in Washington County to 17.8 percent in Emery County under the "worst case." Foundation analysts point out that while most property tax increases in 1984 are expected to fall within these ranges, there could be instances where the increase could be outside these limits in particular taxing districts and among specific properties. The above calculations were based on overall county averages and not on specific properties. The study observesthat in addition to moderating the Supreme Court decisions, the legislation passed during the special session also has some longer-range implications for the property tax. Among other things the legislation will require the following: 1. It directs the Tax Commission to develop new sales or cost ap praisal methods in valuing taxable property for assessment purposes and will cause these to be implemented before 1986. 2. It appropriates $475,000 to the Tax Commission to conduct a comprehensive sales-ratio and assessment study on which to base its next factoring order. 3. It authorizes the Tax Commission to withhold state allocated funds to local units in order to ensure compliance with Tax Commission regulations and orders. Prior to 1981, the State Tax Commission was responsible for conducting a statewide reappraisal program on a county-by-county rotation basis. While the 1984 special session changes do not revive this reappraisal program, they do give the Tax Commission considerably more power to direct and supervise local assessments according to the Foundation analysis. In the past, the indexing and factoring made by the State Tax Commission were designed to achieve greater equalization among counties. Under the new program to be launched, adjustments also will be made to achieve equalization among geographic areas and specific classes of property within the same county. |