Spring City sets hearing on

big hike in property tax

James Tilson

Staff writer

7/26/2018

            SPRING CITY—Spring City is proposing to double its municipal property tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year.

A Truth-in-Taxation notice published in this week’s and last week’s Sanpete Messenger says the proposed increase would raise the revenue yield from property tax in the coming fiscal year by 105.72 percent over revenue for the last fiscal year.

A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the council room in the Spring City Old School Community Center.

Mayor Jack Monnett said of the increase, “It’s vital.” Monnett called it part of an effort to make needed improvements and repairs to the city’s infrastructure. “We knew we had to do it,” he said. “Infrastructure costs money.”

The notice gives two examples of how the tax increase would impact a hypothetical resident or business. On a $180,000 residence, the Spring City charge on the home owner’s property tax bill would increase from $88.31 to $181.67, an increase of $93.36.

For a business property valued at $180,000, the property tax increase would go from $160.56 to $330.30, an increase of $169.74.

On June 14, the city council tentatively approved the new property tax rate as part of the city budget, although the new rate cannot go into effect until after a public hearing and final adoption.

The proposed certified rate was raised from .000917 last year to .001850, which is similar to the rates charged by Fountain Green and Fairview, but lower than the rate in every other municipality in the county except in Wales.

Monnett said Spring City’s rates, not just for property taxes but also for utilities, have been lower than most everyone else in the county.

“We were falling so far behind everyone else as far as revenue. We’ve kept (taxes) low, but it finally hit us in the face. If we keep doing this, we won’t be a city much longer.”

Councilman Tom Brunner said, “Nobody likes taxes or higher utilities, but we did what we needed to do to make sure the city provided the necessary services and balance the budget.”

Even though the revenue that would potentially be gained is a big jump, lower income households should feel less impact than households with higher incomes, the mayor said.

Property tax is based on the value of a house, so the owner of a house with a low assessed  value will pay a lot less than the owner of a $180,000 house. Utility rates are tied to consumption, so a household using relatively little water will pay less than a high-consuming household.