WEST JORDAN, Utah — Across Utah, people are filing into city halls and school auditoriums to hear their elected leaders justify raising their property taxes.
In Tooele on Tuesday night, residents heard the reasons for a proposed $284 a year increase on the average priced home — to help with teacher salaries and other classroom needs. Some still spoke against the proposed tax increase.
"Truth in taxation" hearings are legally required whenever a government body wants to raise property taxes. This year, 60 cities, school districts and special service districts are holding them. The amounts range based on average property values in an area. For example, the Cache County town of Wellsville has proposed a small $2.89 increase. On the other end, the southeastern Utah community of Wellington has proposed a stunning 225% increase (about $487).
The Utah Taxpayers Association, a tax watchdog group that regularly tracks such hearings, says the reason communities often see huge increases is that government bodies won't raise taxes because it's politically unpopular. So they go years — and sometimes decades — without raising them and then they are forced to in order to pay for critical needs like water, roads, public safety and schools.
Alpine School District votes to raise property taxes despite public opposition:
The Utah Taxpayers Association has recommended government bodies raise taxes to keep up with inflation (but then they would have to hold such "truth in taxation" hearings more frequently).
"Truth-in-taxation meetings are a pivotal component of the taxation process in Utah,” Billy Hesterman, the group's president, said in a statement. “The feedback garnered during these meetings plays a crucial role in maintaining the fairness of taxes and ensuring that budgets undergo rigorous scrutiny before final approval. We hope that all taxpayers attempt to attend these meetings.”
In particular, the group urges people to pay attention to special service areas like water districts, which operate independently of cities and towns. This year, the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District is proposing an $11.78 increase on the average home valued at $630,000. The agency, which supplies water to a large part of the Salt Lake Valley, last proposed an increase a few years ago.
"Everyone has felt the squeeze and we recognize that," said Kelly Good, the water district's conservation manager. "We’re trying to be as mindful as we can. In fact, when we first put our budget together, we ended up cutting out about $13 million worth of projects to minimize it as much as we could."
Good said a lot of what they cover with property taxes isn't visible from your water tap. It also creates infrastructure to deal with growth and ensure a needed supply of water.
"The property tax is, again, for more of this future development, watershed protection, fire suppression, things that aren’t necessarily measured by water users that communities benefit from," she said.
But the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District is facing some organized opposition to its property tax increase proposal. The Utah Rivers Council has been rallying people to speak against it at the district's August 11th meeting.
"Their claims of why they need this tax increase are total hogwash," said the environmental group's executive director, Zach Frankel.
The Utah Rivers Council objects to the property tax increase on the larger issue of how much of Utahns' property taxes cover water use.
"It incentivizes large, wealthy landowners to waste water. Both rich homeowners and exempt institutions," Frankel said, referring to nonprofit institutions that don't pay property taxes. "Schools, churches and universities are having cheaper water prices because of the property taxes. We’re in the middle of the biggest Great Salt Lake crisis we’ve ever seen. This water supplier is incentivizing institutions to waste water."
The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District countered that it has instituted tiered water rates and is aggressive about conservation. Frankel also said he opposed the tax increase because of what he said were large salaries the district pays to some employees (the district defended the salaries as being competitive).
To find out if your community has a proposed property tax increase, check out the spreadsheet from the Utah Taxpayers Association below: