The Utah House and Senate appear to be on a collision course with competing bills about how much cities should be able to charge in fees for one of the state’s largest landowners — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The issue revolves around “transportation utility fees,” which a dozen Utah cities charge to residents and businesses to fund road improvements and maintenance.
But the two chambers are at odds over the extent to which churches should be exempt from paying those fees. The LDS Church, in particular, is at the center of the debate.
Tuesday morning, the Senate passed SB310, sponsored by Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, by a vote of 17-8. Brammer’s bill completely exempts churches in the state from paying the fees, whether it be for roads that provide access to ward houses or synagogues, church-owned schools or potentially church-owned shopping malls.
About an hour later, the House passed HB454, sponsored by Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, which doesn’t exempt religious organizations from paying the fees at all.
A different version of Peterson’s bill, which would have prevented cities from charging the fees for roads that provide access to houses of worship and meeting houses, administrative offices, or property used to provide humanitarian and welfare services, failed on a voice vote by her House colleagues.
“This is one more exemption for one more fee, which means you and I will continue to pay more and more and more while some of the largest landowners in this state will continue to pay less,” said Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, speaking against the limited exemption. “I think we have to find a fundamental fairness on this.”
Snider said churches don’t pay property tax, which means they don’t help pay for water projects funded with property taxes, either. He said Peterson had found consensus with stakeholders on the bill “with the exception of one organization.”
Peterson’s bill was the product of a two-year process, that included the LDS Church, to put some guardrails on how cities structure transportation utility fees.
“I just don’t think it’s right that that entity gets one more carveout from fees when they already have so many other carveouts as it relates to property tax,” Snider said.
Peterson encouraged her colleagues to extend some exemption to churches or else “one of our cities is going to be sued.”
If efforts to exempt religious institutions from transportation utility fees, one city would likely see more impact than any other: Provo.
The LDS Church has constructed two temples within its city limits — one of which is being renovated — has dozens of meetinghouses in the city and for 150 years has operated the 738-acre main campus of Brigham Young University there.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
“This is a particular problem for my city because there is so much of the property that they have that is tied up in nonprofits, hospitals, universities, churches, etcetera,” said Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo. “And the reality is that whenever we exempt somebody, the tax doesn’t go away. It just gets shifted onto everybody else.”
Rep. Lisa Shepherd, also a Republican from Provo, followed, “The cities that I represent are greatly impacted by the substitute, so I encourage a no vote.”
The League of Cities and Towns supports Peterson’s bill, without the substitute, and opposes Brammer’s bill.
A spokesman for the LDS Church did not respond to questions about the church’s stance or involvement in either bill.
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, took a hard line opposing Peterson’s bill if churches aren’t exempted.
“I’m adamantly opposed to the House bill if it comes over but doesn’t exempt religious organizations,” he told reporters Tuesday. “This is a tax. They’ll call it a fee. But I just can’t imagine we, in Utah, want to tax religious organizations and wash away that tax exemption. And I think that’s the battle. And personally, I’m going to stand up and be adamantly opposed to it.”
Adding to the intrigue, Peterson is the House sponsor for Brammer’s bill, while Brammer is carrying Peterson’s bill in the Senate. If neither bill passes, churches will continue to be assessed the fees.
In 2023, the Utah Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that Pleasant Grove City’s transportation utility fee was, in effect, an illegal tax on churches. The justices ruled that the fee was a specific charge tied to a specific service or benefit and, therefore, was not a tax and could be assessed against churches.
Brammer said he thinks there is room to find a middle ground, but acknowledged that “we may not get to a compromise, but that’s ok.” If there isn’t some settlement reached, Brammer said there may be grounds for the LDS Church to go to court, “but the church isn’t a particularly lawsuit-hungry entity.”
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