After a rollicking year in Utah with the pandemic, recession, earthquakes, a hurricane-force windstorm, wildfires, protests and a raucous election, another left hook is about to hit many Utahns: property tax hikes.
Around the state, 58 local governments decided to raise taxes this year, according to a Salt Lake Tribune analysis of Utah State Tax Commission data.
One raises taxes eight times higher than last year for its residents. Another one doubles them. Some increases will be only a few pennies each. The news about what each property owner faces arrives in tax notices that counties are mailing over the coming week. Property tax payments are due Nov. 30.
One tax hike of 47% may bring comfort as the pandemic continues for the five town employees of tiny Stockton, in Tooele County, population 722.
“Our current employees needed to have health insurance,” which they have lacked, said Mayor Thomas Karjola. He said that while he was home fighting COVID-19 himself.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
“We are a small town without a lot of commercial property tax revenue,” he said. So the money generated by the tax increase “is within a couple hundred dollars of the cost of health insurance for the employees.”
The town tax on a typical $279,000 home in Stockton will rise from about $445 to $654, up by $210. That is the largest property tax hike by dollar amount in the state this year.
The largest increase by percentage — a whopping 716.1% — is in the Carbon County Municipal Services District, which provides fire and police protection and other services in unincorporated areas there.
Taxes on an average home valued at $145,000 there jumped from about $25 to $206, up by $181.
Carbon County Commissioner Larry Jensen said the big hike comes because of steep losses to the county from federal sharing of coal and gas royalties that it had used to help pay those costs.
“Both coal and gas royalty money were used to pay for the municipal services for the county all through the years,” he said. “But those moneys are dried up. … So we’ve had to raise the tax proportionately to begin to fill that hole.”
Even with that big increase, he said taxes for municipal services in Carbon’s unincorporated areas are now about the same or in some even cases less than what residents pay for similar services in the county’s four cities (Price, Helper, Wellington and East Carbon).
Meanwhile, taxes are nearly doubling — up 97.1% to be exact — in the Weber County Municipal Type Service District, which also provides services in the unincorporated area there. Taxes on an average $403,000 home there will go from about $28 to $55.
Weber County Commissioner Scott Jenkins said that reserves that had helped to pay district bills have dried up, and state law requires that unincorporated area residents cover the full cost of their municipal services without subsidy from taxes collected from others within the county.
“Even with what we’re doing, it may not be enough” to cover all costs, Jenkins said. Part of the unincorporated area is voting on whether to form a new city called West Weber — and Jenkins said the county is waiting to see what happens with that vote to figure how much more taxes may need to rise in the unincorporated area next year as a result.
“Either way, we really need to increase our municipal services taxes again,” he said.
Some of the other biggest tax increases in Utah include the following:
• Snyderville Basin Recreation District. The entity near Park City is raising taxes by 68%, up by about $103 on an average home there valued at $793,000. It provides a recreation center, maintains 170 miles of trails and manages 2,300 acres of open space.
Documents provided by the district said the last time it had a tax increase was 2004, and it has added 90 miles of trails and 2,100 acres of open space, four dog parks and pickleball courts since then. It said the tax hike will better finance maintenance and operations, and begin to replace older playground and other equipment.
• Toquerville. The small city of 2,031 in Washington County is increasing taxes by 58%, up by about $89 on an average home valued at $336,000.
City Council member Gary Chavez said the move is largely to keep up with growth. The city’s population has grown by 48% this decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. “It was just a catch-up process,” he said. “Because of our growth that we are experiencing now, there are some additional resources that we need to support city services.”
• School districts. The largest dollar increase among several relatively big ones by school districts statewide is in the South Sanpete School District. It will go up about $140 on an average home valued at $220,000, a 13.6% bump.
But Superintendent Ralph Squire insisted in an interview, “We didn’t raise taxes. We just kept them exactly the same” because its tax rate remained the same.
The state’s Truth in Taxation law, though, defines what the district is doing as a tax hike. Anytime a local government’s existing tax rate would generate more money than in the previous year — because the value of homes and business property rose — that rate must be lowered to generate the same level of revenue, or it is considered an increase and triggers a public hearing.
Squire said his district chose not to lower its tax rate to help ensure it meets criteria to qualify for a share of state school funds. He adds the district has a small tax base and struggles to maintain old facilities and compete with other districts that pay teachers more.
Some increases by other school districts statewide include: $122 on a typical home in the Nebo School District in southern Utah County; a $91 increase in the Provo School District; $72 in the Tooele County School District; $43 in the Morgan South School District; and $35 in the South Summit School District.
• Wasatch Front. Other tax increases by cities and other local governments along the Wasatch Front range from relatively hefty to tiny.
Some of the larger ones include: About $73 on an average home in Woodland Hills in Utah County; $44 in Spanish Fork; $35 in Fruit Heights in Davis County; $34 in Clearfield; $32 in North Ogden; $29 in South Ogden; $27 in Salt Lake County for countywide services; $26 in both Midvale and Syracuse.
Smaller tax hikes included $1.95 on an average home in West Valley City; 68 cents for library services in Salt Lake County; and 36 cents in the Unified Fire Service Area in Salt Lake County.
