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Show Utah Foundation Report Resident property tax low but high for Utah business assessed at about 15.8 percent of market value with farm property being assessed at 10.4 percent of selling price. Utility and railroad properties, which are assessed by the State, are valued at about 26 percent of recognized value. Furthermore, mining property is assessed on the basis of "net proceeds" which automatically reflects higher metal prices and increased production. Contrary to popular belief, the property tax in Utah is not primarily a tax on homeowners. The Foundation study shows that business taxes in Utah comprise 54 percent of all property tax collections, compared with 42 percent for the US as a whole. Nonbusiness taxes, on the other hand, make up about 41 percent of total property tax collections in Utah as opposed to the US average of 52 percent. Farm taxes are equal to 5 percent of total property taxes in Utah and 6 percent in the nation. The Utah Foundation report observes that the Advisory Commission's property tax study concluded "that a massive Federal effort designed both to ! cut the residential property tax ; substantially throughout the ' country and to encourage states to assume most of the cost for financing local schools was neither necessary nor desirable." The Commission recommended that policies dealing with property tax relief remain the exclusive domain of State policy-makers. The Advisory Commission, however, reaffirmed its earlier recommendations calling upon states to reform property tax administration. According to the Foundation report, Utah has taken some dramatic steps during the past few years to improve the administration of the property tax throughout the state. Firm advances are being made today in multiple sclerosis research, and many scientists believe we are very close to finding the -cause of this serious neurological disease. Evidence is mounting to suggest that the basic causative factor may be a virus. residential property with the market value of such property. An earlier nationwide study by the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental relations pointed out that while the relative Utah property tax effort in 1966-67 1966-67 was 25 percent below the US average for nonfarm residential property and 28 percent below for farm property, it was 24 percent above the national average for commercial and industrial property. Foundation analysts attribute this disparity between residential and business property taxes to the lack of uniformity in assessment ratios among the various classes of property in Utah. Latest Tax Commission sales-ratio studies indicate, for example, that residential property throughout the state is Although the property tax in Utah tends to be low for residential and farm property, it is high for commercial and industrial in-dustrial property when compared com-pared with US norms. This was the conclusion reached by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization, in their latest study of the property tax burden on individuals and business. The Foundation report points out that a recent nationwide survey by the US Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Inter-governmental Relations reveals that Utah's property tax burden on residential property is 35 percent below the US average by the "income test" and 26 percent under the national average by the "value test." The "income test" relates property tax payments on residential property to the income of the persons occupying such dwellings. The "value test" compares property taxes on |