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Show Total Property Taxes In Bountiful Up 3.18 Mils By GARY R. BLODGETT Total property ta rates charged for city, county, school and other purposes in Bountiful rose by 3 18 mills, or $3.18 for each Sl.lXXI of assessed valuation in 1W.V This was reported by Utah Foundation, the private tax research organization, in their latest analysis of property tax rates charged in major Utah cities. THE FOUNDATION study shows that approximately approxi-mately 56. 1 percent of the total property tax charged in Bountiful this year will go for school purposes, 15.6 percent w ill go for municipal purposes, 21.6 percent for county purposes, and 6.7 percent for special district purposes. IN ADDITION to the charges of tax rates, many taxpayers also experienced higher assessed valuations valua-tions on their properties this year thereby compounding com-pounding the tax problem. This is especially true for owners of business and other nonresidential property. prop-erty. According to the Foundation report, the assessment assess-ment changes in 1983 were the result of ( 1) the ratification ratifi-cation of Proposition 1 by the Utah electorate last year and (2) the factoring program w hich is carried out by the State Tax Commission at the close of each even-numbered year. Proposition 1, w hich made extensive ex-tensive revisions of the ta.x article of the Utah State Constitution, authorized the Legislature to exempt up to 45 percent of the value of residential property from taxation. LEGISLATION APPROVED by the 1982 Legislature Legisla-ture implemented this new constitutional provision, but limited the residential exemption initially to 25 percent instead of the full 45 percent authorized. At the same time, the Legislature repealed a 20 percent assessment reduction which previously had been applied ap-plied to all locally-assessed real property. The net effect of Proposition 1 and the related legislation was to reduce assessments on residential property by 6 percent but to increase assessments on businese and other locally-assessed property by 25 percent. In addition to the implementation of Proposition 1 , tactoring adjustments designed to equalize property assessments among the several counties of the state were made this year. Based on sales-radio studies conducted by the State Tux Commission, counties j were ordered to raise or lower assessments so that residential properties would be assessed at 15 percent per-cent of 1978 market value while business and other property would be assessed at 20 percent. ' FOUNDATION analysts point out that, for the most part, these factoring adjustments resulted in added assessment increases on business and other properties (especially unimproved land). At the same time, the factoring adjustments tended to offset the scheduled 6 percent reductions on residential assessments. The combination of higher assessments and higher mill rates resulted in sharply higher property tax burdens for many Utahns in 198. This was especially true for owners of business and other nonresidential property who experienced the bulk of the assessment assess-ment increases this year. DESPITE THE mill increases this year and last, overall property tax rates in 1983 still were well below what they were in 1970. For example, the average overall levy in the 7 1 cities surveyed by Utah Foundation declined from 88.02 mills in 1970 to 69.73 mills in 1981 before rising to 76.22 mills in 1983. In most instances, however, the lower tax rates were more than offset by assessment increases resulting from property revaluations and other assessment adjustments. ad-justments. These assessment increases were a partial par-tial recognition of the inflation that occurred in real estate values during this period. |