Even with a tax increase, taxpayers will pay less property tax to Tooele County in 2018 than they did in 2017.
The Tooele County Commission approved property tax rates for the county’s share of property tax during its meeting on Tuesday night.
In November 2017, as the county commission approved a 2018 budget, it passed a resolution that would allow the commission to increase revenue from the county general/health department and the municipal type services property taxes by 5-percent each.
But at the time the budget was approved, the county wasn’t able to set tax rates because the information needed to set tax rates wouldn’t be available until June 1 of the current budget year.
With a healthy growth in new properties added to the tax rolls, and an increase in property values, the county commission decided to roll-back its anticipated increase to 2.2 percent — to equal the rate of inflation.
“We need to act responsibly to protect our future,” said commission chairman Wade Bitner. “I think keeping up with the consumer price index is a responsible way to do that.”
If the commissioners had stuck with their proposed 5-percent increase in property tax, the owner of a $200,000 home would have paid $234 in county general/health department property taxes in 2018 compared to $231 paid in 2017.
With the reduction to 2.2 percent, the owner of a $200,000 home will get a bill for $229 in county general/health department property taxes in 2018, a 0.86 percent reduction from 2017.
If the county kept its property tax rate at the certified rate, the general/health department tax on a $200,000 would have dropped to $226 in 2018.
The certified property tax rate is the tax rate allowed to the county to collect the same amount of property tax in 2018 as it did in 2017, plus the property tax from new property added to the tax rolls. As property values go up, the certified property tax rate goes down.
In addition to the county general/health department property tax, property owners in unincorporated Tooele County also pay an additional property tax for municipal type services.
The owner of a $200,000 home in unincorporated Tooele County will see their municipal type services tax decrease in 2018 by $14 compared to 2017, a 10-percent decrease.
The decrease in the municipal type services tax is not only due to the increase in total property values, but also due to the compensation for an error in computing the municipal type services property tax rate in 2016.
While making computations for the municipal services property tax rate for 2016, property annexed into Grantsville from Tooele County was not removed from the municipal services tax area, making the property tax rate lower than it should have been.
The Utah State Tax Commission approved a one-time property tax rate increase that bumped the municipal property tax rate by 56 percent in 2017.
The combined effect of removing the one-time increase for 2017, and adding the 2.2 percent increase for 2018, will result in a lower municipal services property tax rate for 2018.
With taxing entities adopting budgets and tax rates, the county auditor has until July 22 to mail a notice of valuation and tax changes to property owners.
Property owners then have until Sept. 15 to file an appeal of their assessed value with the county. The county treasurer must mail tax notices by Nov. 1.