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Show Council considers law against delinquent taxes by Christopher Smart The city council is set to draft an ordinance and dust off a year-old legislative proposal in an ongoing battle with developers to pay delinquent property taxes. " The council will begin to draft an ordinance today, Jan. 17, in an afternoon session preceding the regular 5 p.m. meeting. The decision to draft an ordinance came at a Jan. 10 council work session. Rather than adopt an ordinance in the face of a dismal tax-collection rate, the council last year developed a de facto policy of not scheduling for approval new projects that owed back taxes. That stance was successful in raising property tax collections from 70 percent last year to 86 percent by the year's end. Currently, however, tax collections col-lections are running at about 72 percent. The state-wide average is about 95 percent. According to city manager Arlene Loble, projects that paid taxes out last year to gain plat approvals are again in arrears. At this point, the city has no leverage on developers, who by law have five years to pay back taxes. v Loble explained that it Js a good -.',v- ,. ' : ' . investment policy not to pay taxes since interest charged on back taxes is far below prime lending rate. At last week's council work session, councilman Al Horrigan suggested to the council that it consider not approving projects if the developer owes taxes on other properties. "We have a bunch of deadbeats out there and they're all our friends," he said. "They're telling us very bluntly that we're a bunch of jerks." Mayor Jack Green suggested to Horrigan that the city take a proposal to the state legislature because, "What you're proposing is illegal as hell." Before the council adopted its "gatekeeping" procedure last year, the body was preparing a proposal that would have the Utah Legislature raise the rate of interest on paid delinquent property taxes excluding "owner occupied" or "agricultural" property. During the Jan. 10 work session, the council decided to dig out that proposal and submit it to the 1985 legislative session. Additionally, the city council has determined that embarrassment may lead delinquent developers to pay back taxes. The consensus of the council is to publish the names of the 20 or 30 developers who owe the most back property taxes. The ordinance, however, may present more of a problem to the council. According to city attorney Tom Clyde, the issue is a complex one. Many of the names on the delinquent tax roles are property owners contesting assessments. In other instances, properties are owned by partnerships, making it difficult to punish one partner or another. Clyde pointed out that most of the city councilmen appear on the annual delinquent property tax list. It is not clear exactly what pressure the city can bring to bear on developers in the form of an audience. But Clyde said, "I think we can find a hassle factor to get them to pay." Councilman Bob Wells suggested an ordinance requiring property tax payment be applied to master plan developments so that no single property plat could be approved unless all are up to date on taxes. |