Property tax bloat is real, according to state auditor

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah County Commission Wednesday voted to approve changes to the 2021 budget by rolling back a controversial 2019 property tax hike. One of two commissioners cited “unnecessary bloat” in the county budget.

A 25% reduction of the 2019 tax increase will result in a $4.8 million decrease in the county’s projected property tax revenues for 2021.

“The massive property tax increase of 2019 led to some unnecessary bloat in our county government, which is why I opposed that increase,” read a statement from County Commissioner Bill Lee. 

Get the property tax bloat out

Is there too much bloat in local government budgets? State Auditor John “Frugal” Dougall joined Dave Noriega and Debbie Dujanovic to supply an answer.

Dougall compared city halls across Utah to one of the wealthiest cities in the state: Alpine, on the northeastern edge of Utah County.

“If you drive past their city hall, it’s an old building from, I don’t know, 100, 150 years ago. It’s been expanded a little here and expanded a little there, but they are one of the wealthiest cities in the state on per capita basis. You have a very, very frugal city hall, versus other places . . . that seemed like they’re building palaces to their elected officials,” Dougall said.

“Building palaces to elected officials. If you didn’t love John Dougall before, that right there, that’s the line where you had to me. You had me at hello, John,” Dave said.

Dave sounds off on his taxes . . .

“I can’t remember the last time I heard of [cities] cutting property taxes, honestly. I looked at my property taxes in depth just over the last eight years; they’ve gone up 63 percent in Kaysville,” Dave said. “We’re established. What are we building that needs a 63 percent tax hike in a small little town that’s already been built out.”

. . . and some more

“Do you know how many times we’ve tried to pass a city pool or community pool? We vote that down every year,” Dave said.

“Would you use that?” Debbie asked.

“No!” 

“You wouldn’t use a community pool?”

“I don’t want to use anything anymore. I’m just so angry. Again, the reason I’m so angry is because over the last six years, my property taxes have gone up 63% percent,” Dave said, spent.

Weigh in: If you’re seeing too much property tax bloat in your area, we want to hear from you! Send an email to digitalcontentradio@bonneville.com. 

Read this:

Utah County commissioners approve partial repeal of 2019 property tax increase

 

Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, a.s well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.