Owning a home in Salt Lake County may hurt right about now.
This week, 237,000 Salt Lake County households will have received their property tax bills. The average bill: $1,351. The countywide total billed by County Treasurer Larry Richardson: $573 million.
That's up from $538 million billed at this time last year. And in the past decade, the checks taxpayers have written to the county have grown steadily: Locally assessed taxes, Richardson said, have gone up $261 million, or 130 percent, since 1990.
That increase comes from three kinds of growth: in property values — the average for a Salt Lake County home went from $166,500 in 1999 to $173,000 this year — in the number of homes built in the county and in the tax rate.
"Yes, my taxes have risen dramatically since we bought our house," said Joe Hatch, a Salt Lake Democrat running for the District 1 seat on the new County Council. Hatch's bill was about $600 in 1985; last year it came to $1,400. "My taxes have increased about 8 1/4 percent a year. But year in and year out, that's a chunk."
Yet both Democrat Hatch and Republican Richard Snelgrove, who is running for the two-year at-large seat on the County Council, agree that they're receiving their money's worth in county services.
"I don't believe people realize that Salt Lake County runs the Salt Palace, Abravanel Hall and the Hansen Planetarium, and the county has more golf courses than all of the cities combined, plus a parks network that's bigger than all the cities' parks," Snelgrove said. "There's a litany of items," ranging from Meals on Wheels for homebound seniors to Junior Jazz basketball.
With property taxes paying for "aging services, animal control, protection of the canyons, and the biggest part, the jail, on the whole I believe my portion is very fair," Hatch said.
On the question of future tax increases, the candidates' harmony comes to an end.
"Any tax increases are totally out of the question," Snelgrove said. "People say we need to run government like a business. Well, yes and no. The goal of business is to maximize revenues and maximize profits. And while government has to be efficient like a business, government should not be in the revenue-maximizing mode." Such maximizing means widespread pain if it's in the form of higher taxes, Snelgrove said.
Hatch disagrees.
"I'm kind of appalled by these politicians who say they won't look at a tax increase, when public health and safety are on the line," he said. He wants the new County Council and mayor to look hard at creating special service districts for fire and police protection and canyon patrol that "could be funded out of general revenues." The council may have to ask the state for legislation to pave the way for such districts, he said. But "absolutely everything" — even a tax increase — "has to be on the table. The budget deficit is that severe."
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com