Property Tax Discussion

What can be done to replace the property tax or revise the property tax so people on fixed incomes will not be forced out of their homes. Why are we one of the highest taxed states in the US, when we have natural resources which could provide a substantial severance tax.

Crae Carpenter
Retired in Layton

An hour later Mrs. Raye Kirkman of West Valley City. phoned a similar concern into the Town Meeting Hotline. From our stellar staff on the phone lines:

Mrs. Kirkman is a senior citizen. She and her husband are on a minimal fixed income. Her property taxes are $1,400 per year. She asked why the legislature did not adjust senior citizens' property taxes. Many states have capped their property taxes at the rate it was when the individual retired. She questioned why seniors need to keep paying into the Granite School District. Families that have children should pay more taxes. People should pay their fair share and pay their own way. She lives in West Valley and questioned why she is paying taxes for places in Magna. She said that the requirement to make less than $26,000 before being eligible to receive circuit breaker help is ludicrous. Legislators should put constituents before the church. The church should not be the first call they make until they vote.

Thank you for speaking out on the property tax issue. The legislature cannot change much with property tax without changing the constitution. This requires a vote of the people. The system we have today fairly distributes the property tax based on value. I have seriously looked at other ways, but none are as fair and objective as value.

In Utah, parents don't pay for a child's education while the child is in school. It takes a lifetime of paying property and income taxes. Today, the state pays $7,500 per year to educate a child. That is almost $100,000 from kindergarten through high school in today's dollars. A little over half of your property taxes go to schools. That would be a little over $700 for you, which would take almost a century and a half to pay for one child with property tax alone. Despite some of the draw backs, the structure of our property tax system is well founded. I do feel that we need to make some reforms by making it harder to raise property taxes. This can be done by requiring a vote of the people before property tax revenues are increased. We also need to adjust the circuit breaker because of recent inflation in property values. Hopefully, these reforms can give you some relief in years to come.

On the child issue, having a young population is good. There are many states and countries struggling to support older populations because they the younger generations are small.

Wayne Niederhauser
Utah State Senator, District 9