OCR Text |
Show Shift In Mineral Assessments Adversely Affects S. L. County merits. Most of the big Increases in oil assessments will occur in San Juan County while the major impact of the expected reduction in mining assessments will fall In Salt Lake County and the Jordan School District. This decline in the assessment base will create additional problems of local government finance within Salt Lake County. Ilapidly rising oil production in Utah may go a long way in offsetting the anticipated drop in metal mining assessments according to the Utah foundation. foundat-ion. The Foundation earlier this week predicted a c'-op of 50 million in net proceeds min" assessments during 1959 .with a $50 million dec'ine in Foundation analysts point out that the recent corr-Ietion of ?n oil pipe line from South-eastern South-eastern Utah to Souther "i California Cal-ifornia has permitted c'.l production pro-duction in Utah to ju ?p to f.vc times the 1957 level During the first three months of this year oil production totaled 1.4 million bands or about 465,000 barrels per month Preliminary figures show oil production in April equal to 1.1 million barrels vit.h May production climbing above the 2.1 million barrel ri"rk Oil production in Utah ('urn? 1957 averaged only nb ut 360,000 barrels per !!' nth. The research organization ..if'rves that present 'rends indicate that 1958 c il production pro-duction in Utah will total 20-22 20-22 million barrels. Oi1 Tands in Utah are assessed n the basis of the oil produced ..uring the proceeding year Thus, the birr jurvp in 1958 production will be reflected in a c-rrCs. ponding increase in property tax assessment for next year. Foundation officials estimate that total oil and gas -ssess-ments next year may exceed $40 million. Such assessments this yar amount to 10.5 mi1 lion, while 1957 oil arc? gas assessments were equal to 6.4 million. A problem noted by the Foundation is the geographic shift in the property tax assess- |