GARDEN CITY, Rich County — This small town on Bear Lake's western shore has a big problem.
Garden City officially has about 400 residents. But because about nine in 10 of the town's estimated 1,100 homes are owned by part-time residents, the summer population jumps to as many as 4,500.
Add that to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Bear Lake each year, and you've got a small town struggling to provide services for a big population.
The issue came to a head recently when more than 100 property owners packed the tiny Town Hall to protest a proposal to raise Garden City's share of property taxes 385 percent. Responding to the outcry, the Town Council settled on a 100 percent increase.
Even so, resident Jerry Hunsicker says Garden City is forcing full-time residents to fund services for summer residents and tourists.
"Most of the infrastructure is based not on the full-time residents who live here but on the visitors," Hunsicker said.
Although the proposed property tax increase was large by percentage, Mayor Ken Hansen said it wouldn't have been that big in dollars. City officials calculated the average Garden City home is valued at $141,975, and the 385 percent increase would have been $63 for a year-round resident, bringing the amount owed to $81.
"It really wasn't the amount, it was the idea of 385 percent," Hansen said.
With the 100 percent increase, a year-round resident with an average home will pay $36 in property taxes — an $18 increase.
But year-round residents pay taxes on just 55 percent of a home's value. Most Garden City homes are occupied only part of the year, which means a part-time resident will pay $66 a year on an average home, a $33 increase.
Garden City resident Gene Cook said the vacation homeowners are paying more than their share.
"I really, really felt bad about our secondary homeowners having to pay 100 percent more in taxes to support developers," Cook said.
He said the town should make developers pay for the services their projects require.
"My major concern about that large of increase is developers should pay the impact fees," Cook said.
To generate more revenue, in August the city raised the fees developers pay for new roads to $2,896 per home from 4 cents per square foot ($60 for a 1,500-square-foot home). The impact fees for water were raised two years ago to $1,178 per connection from $208 per connection.
That's a step in the right direction, Hunsicker said — but not a big enough one. He said the city could raise up to $2.5 million through higher impact fees for development, plus taxes and user fees on boat ramps, jet-ski and boat rentals, cabin rentals and other tourism-related services.
Garden City already has a 1 percent hotel tax, but it accounts for only 11 percent of the town's budget.
"Everybody agrees we do need money," said Hunsicker, who plans to run for Town Council. "All of these things can be done with user fees and impact fees."
Rick Fawcett, a Pocatello, Idaho, consultant who recommended the tax increase after studying Garden City's finances, said the city should have been raising property taxes as growth drove up the costs of services. Instead, he said, city officials assumed rising property values and new construction would generate enough revenue to cover the costs of services resulting from new development.
"It's a city that's growing rapidly that hadn't kept their taxes at an appropriate level," Fawcett said. "You can't keep running a city like that."
In fact, the Town Council recently voted unanimously for a six-month moratorium on new, multihome subdivisions to give city officials time to update Garden City's general plan and review subdivision ordinances.
Even with the 100 percent property tax increase the Town Council settled on, the city is still drawing on savings to pay for services. Hansen said property taxes would continue to rise for several years.
Garden City homeowners aren't the only Utahns concerned about high property taxes. Landowners throughout the state have complained about escalating property values pushing up property taxes to unaffordable levels.
In fact, the Legislature is preparing bills for the 2008 session aimed at providing property tax relief and altering the way government entities can impose tax increases.
E-mail: mikewennergren@yahoo.com