By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab Recreation District is newly formed but has no
money for the big projects that need to be accomplished.
Greg Rowley is the chairman of the 10-member
committee.
Brady Taylor is the vice chair and Kent Park the
treasurer.
Rick Welch, a member of the Juab School District board
of education and also their representative on the recreation
district board, reported that the committee had held a
meeting and discussed the question of allowing tax revenue
to be raised for the district.
"We did establish by-laws at our last meeting," Welch
told the school district board.
He said the district board also wrote goals, the
objectives of the board, and a mission statement.
The tax being sought is .0008 which will raise
$500,000 for county recreation district programs.
The levy, if approved, would be added to the list of
the property taxes collected in Juab County.
The property tax rate is determined by the amount of
the tax levy. There are several steps involved in
determining the tax levy.
First, the taxing jurisdiction (a school district,
city, town, county, etc.) develops and adopts a budget.
Revenue from all sources other than the property tax (state
aid, sales tax revenue, user fees, etc.) is determined.
These revenues are subtracted from the original budget and
the remainder becomes the tax levy.
It is the amount of the tax levy that is raised
through the property tax.
Real property tax is an ad valorem tax, or a tax based
on the value of property. Two owners of real property of
equal value should pay the same amount in property taxes.
Also, the owner of more valuable property should pay
more in taxes than the owner of less valuable property.
The property tax differs from the income tax and the
sales tax because it does not depend on how much money is
earned or on how much is spent by the property owner.
It is based totally on how much the property is
worth.
For example, if an assessor assesses property at 15
percent of value, a house and land with a market value of
$100,000 would have an assessment of $15,000. With no
exemptions, this is the property's taxable assessed
value.
This $15,000 is not the tax bill. The tax bill for
this house depends on the municipality's tax rate. Other
entities also establish a tax rate for the need of that
entity.
The tax rate is determined by dividing the total
amount of money that has to be raised from the property tax
(the tax levy) by the taxable assessed value of taxable real
property in a municipality. If, for example, a town levy is
$2,000,000, and the town has a taxable assessed value (the
sum of the assessments of all taxable properties) of
$40,000,000, the tax rate would be $50 for each $1,000 of
taxable assessed value or, the formula of $2,000,000 /
$40,000,000 = .050 x $1,000 = $50 (tax rate).
The town tax bill for this house with an assessment of
$15,000 would be $750.
The $750 results from dividing the assessment of
$15,000 by $1,000 to get $15 (because the tax rate is based
on each $1,000 of assessed value). Then, the $15 is
multiplied by the tax rate to get the tax bill of
$750--$15,000 / $1,000 = $15 x $50 = $750 (tax bill).
The size of the tax bill depends on both the
assessment and the tax rate, which is based on the tax
levy.
There are times when tax rates cannot be set until the
tax levy is apportioned, or divided, among various
municipalities. Apportionment occurs if parts of a school
district, or special district, exist in more than one city
or town. Taxes are apportioned so that the parts of the
district in the different municipalities each pay their fair
share of the district tax levy.
The county tax levy also is apportioned among the
towns and cities in the county. This is so that cities and
towns will each pay their fair share of the county tax
levy.
Tax bills increase for one or more of the following
reasons: bigger budgets are adopted, revenue from sources
other than the property tax shrinks, the taxable assessed
value of the assessing unit changes, or the tax levy is
apportioned differently.
Taxpayers unhappy with growing property tax bills
should not concern themselves just with assessments. They
also should examine the scope of budgets and expenditures of
the taxing jurisdictions (counties, cities, towns, etc.) and
address those issues in the appropriate available forums,
such as meetings of the city council and town.
One reason property tax in Utah tends to be a bit
lower is the state law that discounts the market value of
residences, not businesses, by 45 percent before multiplying
it by the tax rate to figure taxes.
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