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Show Land Values Tax Assessor Garfield County Assessor Tom Simkins is sharing the challenge to assessors throughout the state created by a tough new law and a galloping real estate market, according to a recent Utah Tax Commission study. The tax commission's annual "AssessmentSales Ratio Study" showed thai all of the county assessors kept up with escalating home prices, although there were isolated pockets in a few counties that needed readjusunent. Last year, the same study resulted in the tax commission ordering 25 of Utah's 29 counties to bring residential and other classes of property into line with fair market value. Assessors in 1995 began implementing a new slate law that requires adjustment of all types of properties to reflect fair market value each year, said agency spokesperson Janice J. Perry. "As a result, this year only a handful of counties were advised to take corrective action, Perry said, noting that most of those involve (he uniformity of assessment among similar vacant land parcels. "That uniformity problem is largely created by market pressure on vacant land as agricultural land is subdivided for development," Perry said. "Most of the assessors had already planned to reappraise those areas." In Garfield County, the salesratio study showed Simkins kept residential properly assessed values current with expanding market values, but the study revealed lack of uniformity in some assessments among similar recreational recrea-tional parcels. The study recommended recom-mended reappraisal of recreational properties in the Mammoth Creek and Panguitch Lake areas. "From some of the sales data and other data we've gathered," said Simkins, "we can expect 50 percent-plus increases in values" in those two areas. "We did greenbelt revaluations two years ago," he said,: "and Panguitch Pan-guitch and Panguitch Valley more (See Land Values Tax Assessor On Page 7 A) Land Values Tax Assessor From Page 1 looking at the Bryce Valley and Antimony areas." The study recommended adjustment adjust-ment of residential property values in only six of the 29 counties and adjustment of vacant land values in more than half the counties. |