Property tax valuations have gone out and the pay-up deadline is only three months away. Must be time to begin the annual gripe-fest on Utah's high taxes.

Not so fast, says the Utah Foundation. The state's annual tax burden on property owners is quite reasonable compared to the other 49 states, and the taxes on residential property are a Kmart Blue Light Special.

Taxes on an urban home valued at $200,000 would be about $1,400, says the foundation, 11th lowest in the nation. Taxes on an urban apartment building worth $650,000 would be fourth lowest.

That's the good news for property owners: Utah property taxes have grown at a slower rate over the past 30 years (an average of 7.7 percent annually) than any other tax save motor fuels (7.5 percent). The property tax burden now represents only 2.6 percent of personal income, down from 4.2 percent in 1970.

The bad news is that individual income taxes have been taking up the slack, with annual growth of 11.6 percent over the past 30 years. Sales and corporate taxes have risen 10.2 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.

Taxes on homes, apartments and commercial or industrial properties are low when compared to the other 49 states, says the foundation's senior analyst Jim Robson, who wrote the report.

But Utah is in the middle when compared to the other Mountain states, which include Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado for purposes of the study.

"Most of the Mountain states have moderate property taxes, especially for residential homes," said Robson, noting that Arizona's very high business property taxes are an exception.

The foundation used data from a recent study by the Minnesota Taxpayers Association to compare 18 hypothetical properties, ranging from $80,000 homes to $50 million industrial properties in both urban and rural areas.

Owners of business properties in Utah have tax burdens nearly twice as high as residential property owners, the report shows, although they're still below the national average. The reason is that state law grants a large tax exemption for residential property, reducing taxable value by 45 percent.

"During these past 30 years, the income tax burden on Utah taxpayers has just about made up for the declining property tax burden," Robson said.

For fiscal 2000, sales taxes raised the most revenue for the state, at $1.89 billion. Individual income taxes brought $1.65 billion into the coffers, followed by $1.35 billion in property taxes.

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Motor fuel taxes and corporate taxes were a distant third and fourth at $314 million and $181 million, respectively.

A bit more than half (53.5 percent) of property tax revenues go to fund schools. The counties get 21.3 percent, the cities 14.4 percent and special districts 10.8 percent.

Utah Foundation (www.utahfoundation.org) is a nonprofit research organization on public policy issues.


E-MAIL: max@desnews.com

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