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Show Utah Foundation Reports Property Taxes Above Average Property taxes on homeowners in Park City average $11.73 per $1,000 of value. Property taxes paid by homeowners home-owners in Park City averaged $11.73 per $1,000 of value last year, according to a study prepared by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization. The Foundation calculated the average property tax load in the 69 largest Utah municipalities. According to the study, the property tax burden ranged from a high of $13.59 per $1,000 of sales value in Moab to a low of $3.84 per $1,000 of sales value in Mount Pleasant. Park City ranked 25th among the 69 cities included in the comparison. Despite the fact that property taxes have been rising during recent years, taxes on homeowners homeown-ers in Utah generally are lower than those paid in most other states. An analysis of data gathered by the Federal Housing Administration reveals that property prop-erty on FHA-financed, single-family single-family home in Utah are nearly 30 percent below the U.S. average. According to the Foundation analysis, the property taxes on an FHA-financed home in Utah averaged $11.99 per $1,000 of sales value during 1975. Thus, the average property tax on a $30,000 home in Utah amounted to $360. For the nation as a whole, the average property tax burden amounted to $17.10 per $1,000 of sales value, or $513 on a $30,000 home. Utah ranked 38th among the 46 states incuded in this FHA survey. The property tax burden ranged from a low of $6.39 per $1,000 of sales value in Louisiana to a high of $32.62 per $1,000 of sales value in Massachusetts. Most of the low property tax states are located in the South, while the highest property taxes generally are found in the Northeast and Midwest sections of-the nation. Among the eleven Western States, only Wyoming reported a lower average property tax burden on homeowners than did Utah. Throughout the Western States, the property tax on FHA homes averaged $16.83 per $1,000 of sales value. This was 40 percent more than the average property tax burden indicated for Utah. The Foundation notes that I there has been a growing resistance to the property tax across the nation. California voters will decide in June on an initiative amendment to limit property taxes to 1 percent of market value. Property owner protests in other states and local communities are forcing public officials to promise property tax relief. Foundation analysts point out that the property tax on a home is determined by two factors: (1) the assessments or valuation that is placed on the property for tax purposes and (2) the total mill levy imposed by the various units of government. Both of these factors may vary widely from community to community as well as from state to state. Although the property revaluation revalu-ation program that has been carried out in Utah during the past few years has resulted in higher property taxes for many property owners, the property tax burden (expressed in terms of taxes per $1,000 of market value) has been declining. For example, over the past ten years the average property tax burden throughout Utah has slipped from $15.75 per $1,000 in 1967 to $10.58 per $1,000 of value in 1977. The Foundation attributes this decline to the fact that inflation has caused property values generally to rise at a much faster pace than the rise in property taxes charged. |