There’s a letter to the editor on this page that bears reading, if only to raise curiosity about how local government and property tax work. The letter expresses an opinion, so we’re printing it as fair comment on a matter of interest to the general public.
The problem with that expressed belief – that all property tax payers should withhold their payment to protest some assessed valuations – is that it ignores the collateral damage such an action would cause. The county assesses and collects. It does not keep all the money for itself. Consider the harm that widespread tax nonpayment would cause.
‘How many teachers would the school district have to lay off and how could the district avoid default on its bonds?’
For example, how many teachers would the school district have to lay off and how could the district avoid default on its bonds? The district rate gets the lion’s share of property tax collections, a bit more than twice the amount that goes into the county government’s general and municipal service funds. (For you policy wonks, that’s 0.007257 for the schools, 0.002965 for the county, according to county clerk/auditor figures.)
Cities depend on taxes
All the cities get a share of the property tax collected. How many cops can they – meaning their citizens – do without? How many parks will deteriorate? How about library books and computers? How many will default on their bonds?
The Price River Water Improvement District and Carbon Water Conservancy District also get a share of the property tax.
There are ways to protest assessed valuation that don’t involve harming innocent bystanders who provide and depend on necessary public service. The county Board of Adjustments is one, the State Tax Commission is another.
‘There are ways to protest assessed valuation that don’t involve harming innocent bystanders…’
Americans have a long history of tax protest, beginning with the Revolutionary War and continuing into Shays’ Rebellion over taxes on farmers. Later, when the man now on our $10 bills recommended and got a tax on distilled spirits, there came the Whiskey Rebellion, which was put down bloodlessly by the man on our $1 bills.
Brack Lee, Tea Party man
Closer to our place and time, the venerable J. Bracken Lee, former mayor of Price and governor of Utah, protested the paying of his federal taxes. Cooler heads in the political/industrial community asked him to tone it down, because Congress was still considering using federal funds for the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.
So while we’ve grumbled perpetually about taxes of all kinds, we’ve somehow managed to build the world’s most prosperous nation. The reason is that individual hard work and entrepreneurial zeal have run on an infrastructure of public works, public education, and public safety, all supported by taxes.