Property owners in Utah (well…Davis County at least) should be receiving real property assessment notices this weekend. Take a look at yours to see if it is correct.
If your assessment is even a little bit off I recommend appealing. I’ve seen mine already and plan on sending the appeal form in as soon as I get my notice! As always, I’m happy to assist my fellow bloghive denizens in dealing with property tax appeals or answering questions about the process. Leave a comment or email me!
Major Kudos to Obi Won Liberali for his excellent post on property tax issues in Utah. In his comments section he wrote that he’s “taking a swim in Jeremy’s pond” by posting on the issue. Wrong. His post is a far better analysis than I’d be able to come up with.
It will be interesting to see how things go when assessment notices are sent out in Davis County this year. The southern part of the county was re-appraised last year and homeowners cried bloody murder at the tax increases they received. The assessor’s office has re-visited values in most of the rest of the county this year and tax levies are being decreased across the board. It will be interesting to see how the decreased levies and increased assessments effect the newly re-appraised cities and neighborhoods mostly located in the northern portion of the county. I’ll post again when more information is available.
I had never been to a precinct caucus meeting before tonight. The meetings for Democrats and Republicans in district 16 were held at Northridge High School in Layton. The Democrats had about 20 people in our meeting while the Republicans probably had 8 to 10 times that number and had to use the school’s auditorium.
The Democratic caucus went well. I especially appreciated meeting Carole Peterson, candidate for the legislature. Her background as former chief clerk (30+ years) of the Utah House of Representatives makes her an excellent candidate in this race. She’s seen the political misdeeds of the Republicans who’ve run the capital for the past few decades. She knows for certain what needs to change and how to make those changes. I emptied my wallet and donated what I could to her as soon as the meeting was over. We need representatives who will be responsive to their constituent citizens and who aren’t part of a graft producing machine. Ms. Peterson spoke about her respect for the importance of the office she’s running for and her long career of careful non-partisan service as chief clerk of the House testifies of her sincerity. Anyone who can help her campaign out or donate really should. Beating Kevin Garn won’t be easy…but its not impossible either. If anyone can do it in our area of Davis County I’m betting it is Ms. Peterson.
There wasn’t a lot to vote on in the caucus. Democrats don’t have multiple candidates for any office up for election this year in our precinct so we had a good time meeting each other and called it a night. As our meeting adjourned the Republicans had just ended their large group meeting and had broken up into smaller groups. They were going up the stairs while we were going down. I saw several people from my ward, including my Bishop, following the herd upstairs.
There were times leading up to tonight when I had considered joining that herd only because it sometimes seems so hopeless for Democrats in Davis County. As I watched the dozens of Republican men and women who filed past the handful of Democrats we had I knew for certain that there was no way I’ll be switching to Republican. There is no logical reason for there to be such a political imbalance in our community. A significant portion of the Republicans I saw have exactly the same policy priorities our Democrats have but they’ve accepted the foolish cultural dogma that only Republicans represent their values. Utah’s political environment would be far more dynamic, ethical, and trustworthy if there was real partisan competition in our state. I’m glad I participated tonight if only to do my small part in helping that happen. Utah deserves better than we’ve currently chosen for ourselves. I’m hoping and acting on the belief that our situation is reversible.
Full Personal Disclosure: I am currently employed by the Davis County Assessor Office as a Certified Residential Appraiser. This blog post represents my own opinion only.
KVNU’s For The People blog posted the entirety of an article by the Utah Foundation explaining Utah’s property tax system and how it works.
Utah’s “Truth in Taxation” property tax law has proven to be an excellent restriction on the growth of this tax for Utahns. Every home or business owner should read the Utah Foundation’s brief on how it works.
Are there steps that could be taken to ensure Utah’s property tax burden is distributed more fairly? Definitely.
1. Counties should be required to re-assess every parcel within their borders every year to ensure problems like those in the 2007 assessment of southern Davis County don’t happen again. Obviously this would require that assessor offices in each of the counties be adequately funded and staffed.
2. Utah’s status as a non-disclosure state for real estate transactions needs to be changed. All property sales should be public record as is the standard in nearly every other state in our country. The current system ensures an unfair tax break for high-end properties and a higher tax burden for owners of average or smaller homes.
3. Better enforcement or revamping of greenbelt exemptions should be examined. Many large property owners and developers are bearing far less than their fair share of the tax burden because they take advantage of greenbelt status.
4. The availability of circuit breaker property tax exemptions for destitute home owners should be expanded. We shouldn’t hear of people being taxed out of their homes in our state because of increasing property taxes.
Thanks for KVNU/FTP and the Utah Foundation for some excellent and useful information!
Full Disclosure: I am currently employed by the Davis County Assessor as a Certified Residential Appraiser. This blog post represents my own opinion only.
Today’s Deseret Morning News editorial rightly cautions lawmakers considering property tax policy revisions in the upcoming legislative session. Many of the changes proposed by various lawmakers could cause far more harm than good. Any attempt to assess residential parcels using a measurement other than current fair market value will create inequities as bad or worse than those we have seen this past year. Too many of the proposed changes would alter this method of assessment and would result in an unfair distribution of the tax burden in most of Utah’s counties (the potential inequities favor wealthy property owners over average home owners in nearly every case).
There are obvious problems with the current system that need to be fixed. One example of a very positive change that should be considered is the proposal to require counties to assess all parcels every year instead of only assessing each city within the county every five years. Many of the property tax inequities which occurred in Davis County this year wouldn’t have happened under this policy.*
My only disagreement with the Deseret Morning News stems from their opposition to Sen. Neiderhauser’s proposal requiring voter approval of any tax increases above and beyond levels of inflation. As a resident of Davis County where we’ve been hit with several foolish tax increases over the past few years I think this proposal deserves some discussion. This policy would put more power in the hands of voters instead of the politicians who sometimes seem to pay more attention to narrow partisan interests than they do to the needs of county residents.
*It should be noted that Davis County is making every effort to implement this policy even if the state doesn’t require them to do it. James Ivey, the Davis County Assessor (and my boss), has asked for and received additional funding from the Davis County Commission to pay for the personnel needed to complete this huge task for tax year 2008.
I voted today. You should too! Find out where you can vote early and enjoy the short lines and get an “I Voted!” sticker before all your friends and family.
Here is a news story that discusses some of the potential benefits and pitfalls of year-round school. On the whole I think implementation of this idea would be a pain in the rear for me and my family but I think I support the idea for my school district because the financial benefits that could result from this plan for taxpayers and public schools seem too good to ignore.
I don’t know why but some Board of Education members seem to be against this idea…I suspect the story above may be blowing the disagreement way out of proportion.
I can understand the consternation of some school officials at having yet another mandate shoved down their throats by the legislature. In the end though taxpayers deserve a break and if something like this could really help the state deal with some of the scary demographic statistics we face in the near future than I don’t have a problem if their egos are a little bruised. Of course I haven’t seen all the information available on the idea or heard all of the potential problems but from what I have heard a year-round school calendar seems like a pretty good idea.
Grudging Hat-Tip: Mark Towner’s Political Spyglass…it is beneficial to readers and original content providers if bloggers provide links to articles instead of copy-pasting the whole things on their web pages.
I think Niederhauser might be on to something with this idea. Until I hear more specifics on the plan I won’t decide one way or the other but I’m inclined to support the idea of letting voters be the decision makers on tax increases instead of local government leaders.
Davis County government has proposed a tax abatement for people whose property values rapidly appreciated last year.
Even if we look past problems with the specifics of the proposed abatement as reported in the press this is a very lame deal. The abatement amounts to a giveaway of public dollars to people in the areas of the county that have experienced the greatest benefit from appreciation in the value of their property. Even worse, the people who have benefited from being under-assessed over the past 5+ years are also being paid off with public funds. Why are we rewarding home owners in Bountiful and NSL because their houses are worth more this year than last? Why are we subsidizing home owners who haven’t been paying their fair share in county property taxes over the past 5+ years because their homes were under-assessed?
This whole plan represents an attempt by scared politicians in the County and the School District to buy off many of the county’s wealthiest (and most vocal) taxpayers with public funds that should benefit all of us in the form of better government or a tax cut.
Tyler Farrer said it best: The problem is not assessments, but taxes…The only real solution is to reverse last years tax increase!
He’s right…and this proposed abatement is a scam.
I doubt that I’ll ever be an elected official. If I am ever in that type of a position I think I learned more about the necessary qualities of a local government leader in my hour and a half at tonight’s hearing than I’d ever learn from any civic leadership manual or book.
Here are a few things I learned about effective/ineffective leadership, accountability, demographics, and mob psychology at tonight’s hearing:
(more…)
A marching band composed of swimwear attired Sabbath breaking heathens invaded a public school in Davis County. Read all about it on the Clipper front page!
I guess we should be grateful for slow news days…but this is embarrassing. Stuff like this should only be happening in Utah County.
Read Nick Perkin’s excellent take on this story here. His cartoon basically says it all.
UPDATE 08/03/07 11:10
I am employed by the Davis County Assessor’s office and answer to Mr. Jim Ivie, the Davis County Assessor, for all I do in his name. Today on KSL and reportedly KNRS a Davis County resident and taxpayer in Bountiful claimed she was brushed off by the county and told that if she didn’t want to pay higher taxes she should sell her house. No one in my office would have said this. Mr. Ivie has been very clear about the importance of treating the public with respect and dignity. I am the appraiser in our office who spoke to the person making these claims. We spoke for more than 30 minutes about her assessment and what her options were. At no time did I tell her there was nothing we could do and in fact I advised her that she could come into our office and I’d personally help her fill out her appeal paperwork. I finished the call by giving her my full name and direct phone number so she could call me any time she needed assistance.
I don’t speak for the Davis County Assessor on this blog but when someone slander’s my office after I’ve put so much work in to helping them deal with the increase in their assessment I have to speak out. KSL should have gotten both sides before running with this woman’s sympathetic but not entirely true story.
END UPDATE
The Ogden Standard Examiner took this photo of me on the job. How embarassing.
Check out their editorial on property taxes in Davis County.
You should also check out UTA’s latest post on property taxes and how/why they increase. Their point about reassessment especially applies to South Davis County this year.
Everyone who lives in Utah and wants to understand how property taxes work should keep up with the next series of posts Utah Taxpayer Association will be blogging.
It is important to understand how your assessment affects your tax bill. Utah’s Truth-In-Taxation law represents what I believe to be one of the most fair and ingenious examples of tax policy ever written. UTA’s first post discussing Truth-In-Taxation basics is up this evening.
I’ve been wanting to post about property taxes all week but haven’t been able to think of a good way to discuss the issue on this blog as I’m employed as a real estate appraiser by the Davis County Assessor. I’m hoping that UTA will discuss the implications of Truth-In-Taxation in cases similar to what’s going on in South Davis County where a significant reassessment has taken place in 2007. Why does it seem that everyone in Bountiful (Bountiful City was re-assessed for the first time in several years) is being taxed so much more heavily in 2007 than in years past if TNT is working correctly? What are taxing entities required to do with the large windfalls they will be receiving in 2007 due to the re-assessment?
It isn’t fun to try to explain these tax increases to people who may be forced to sell their property and move somewhere cheaper because the taxes on the home they’ve lived in for decades have increased more than they can afford to pay.
Major props to UTA for their clear and understandable explanations of the economic and legal principles which govern Utah’s property taxation system.
Tyler at Davis County Watch and the anonymous UtahRattler are up in arms about a proposed increase in property taxes for Davis County schools to be discussed at the August 7th Board of Education meeting.
The proposed tax increase is approximately $17 on a $190k house (median value of a home in Davis County). If this tax increase takes place county schools will receive 2 to 1 matching funds offered by the state. In other words for every one dollar the board raises in new property taxes the state will provide the district with 2 more dollars.
TheRattler contends that it is “duplicitous” for the state to require districts to fund their full share of the district budget before expecting the state to provide additional dollars for schools.
Essentially this, ‘you raise taxes by X, and we’ll give you $2 for every dollar you collect’ scheme, seems to be a way (attempt) for politicians (legislators) and bureaucrats (school board and district) to wash their hands of responsibility for the tax increase. If citizens complain to one, it points at the other. This allows a for circular blame game with all taxing parties ducking responsibility. This also lets our purportedly ‘conservative’ legislature claim they didn’t raise taxes and oppose tax increases while, at the same time, they put out big incentives for local authorities to raise your taxes.
I don’t understand why a self proclaimed conservative would rail against such obviously sensible fiscal policy. The district needs the state tax dollars to fund our educational needs but they’ve been told by the state that they aren’t entitled to that money unless they are already funding their fair share of the costs through district property taxes. This makes a lot of sense from a fiscally conservative standpoint. State tax dollars shouldn’t be going to districts that aren’t shouldering their share of the financial burden.
According to school board member Bill Moore (from a quote in the Clipper article linked above):
“One of the messages we keep hearing from our legislators over and over when we ask them for more funding is, ‘You are not fully utilizing the funding opportunities that are yours now. So we need to step up to the plate.”
I’m amazed at the excellent job our public schools are doing at fulfilling their purpose in the face of massive under-funding. Too many “conservatives” think we should try to educate our kids on the cheap. It makes no sense to oppose increased investment in a system which has shown such impressive returns in the past, especially as costs are increasing and we are faced with huge projected future enrollments. All citizens benefit from an effective and adequately funded school system. If we are going to have that benefit we’re going have to pay our fair share. There’s nothing “duplicitous” about that.
I couldn’t possibly come up with a post that does better justice to the topic of our idiotic but extremely powerful public health nannies than Mr. Perkins cartoon.
Check out his blog here.
