Show highway Taxes highway-user and Tty taxes levied on mo- in Utah range moderate to high when ared with averages for fountain States and for ial a IS fact was brought out tah the tax research oration in their analysis of a recent study of Road-User and Property Taxes on Selected Motor Vehicles in 1973 prepared by the Federal Highway The study shows that total state and local taxes property and on passenger intercity busses and certain classes of in Utah are somewhat above national and regional ON SOME of the larger trucks and tractor-trailer the tax burden in Utah is average or slightly below According to the Foundation the total road-user and personal property taxes paid on a typical medium weight passenger car in Utah last year was This compares with a U.S. average tax burden of and a Mountain States average of for this type of FOUNDATION analysts point out that an important element in the total tax burden on motor vehicles in Utah is the property While this lax has little direct relationship to highway use and small portion of the tax collection is ever made available for highway the property tax is closely associated with registration In Utah a motor vehicle owner first must obtain a property tax clearance before he is permitted to register and operate a vehicle within the THE STUDY indicates that only slightly more than half of the states' report the imposition and collection of property taxes on motor Many of the states without a property tax on motor impose a much higher registration fee in lieu of the property In Utah the property tax comprises a major portion of the total tax collected on motor If property taxes were excluded in making the comparisons with other Utah would rank near the bottom of the fifty states in the highway-user tax 1 IN November the Utah electorate will vote on a proposed amendment to the state constitution which would permit the state to impose a uniform tax rate on motor in lieu of the multitude of local property tax rates now levied on such Last year there were separate taxing areas with the state with tax rates ranging all the way from mills per assessed to This has led to considerable confusion and some instances of fraud in the assessment and of property taxes on motor vehicles and other types of moveable personal IF THE constitutional change is the proceeds from the uniform properly tax levy or in lieu tax would be allocated back to the taxing districts in which the property is located in the same proportion as real property tax revenue is distributed to such |