Guest commentary: Huntsville: town for sale -- can't afford the taxes
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Don "D" Bell
Guest commentary
W
e were shocked in August. No, Utahns were shocked. Ogden Valley and specifically Huntsville town was dumbfounded at the assessed real estate values.
How could Bill Anderson's ol' place -- gutted and belly deep in weeds -- be listed at $450,000, now marked down on MLS at $350,000? To quote the immortal Bard, "Something is rotten in Denmark." My research online showed valleywide -- perhaps statewide -- dumbfounding was not only justified, but that Huntsville town is the highest-taxed town or city in the state, if not the country. Also discovered were tax evaders and cheats who are taking from their neighbors, but the law will handle those people in due time unless they straighten up and fly right quickly.
Huntsville town's tax rate was reduced by 3 percent in 2006 and 13 percent in 2007. And the town's general fund tax rate was reduced 43 percent to hold the amount steady under truth-in-taxation mandates. Property owners in unincorporated areas had lower tax rates than Huntsville both in 2006 and 2007.
However, the 2006 town residence tax rate decrease (3 percent) was accompanied by an increase in taxable assessed values on the order of some 60 percent. Our residences' tax rate was also decreased this year by 13 percent, yet our aggregate residential property taxes increased by almost 91 percent per household.
This disparity promises to be even more next year.
Let me try to explain what is happening. The county commissioners have written off Ogden Valley. Too few permanent residents/voters. They will say to Standard-Examiner columnist Charlie Trentleman (who this year only paid about $1.39 in property taxes more than last year) and the others in the densely populated metro area: See, we taxed all those rich people in the valley. We are taking care of you, so vote for us again. In effect, they are using our inflated property tax money to buy votes. This is Machiavellian and the good people all over Weber County need to understand what we have elected.
We have already written a petition asking for fair and equitable reassessments. We appealed to commissioners' sense of common decency and fairness with our petition. They turned us down flat.
Rep. Froerer met with commissioners and the school district twice, proposing a Davis County-style tax-rebate scheme. They turned us down flat again.
Now let me say a word or two about "Shirley." She is a widow living alone and in her 80s. Her home, built in 1908, assessed at $109,666 in 2006 (up 63 percent from 2005). But this year, her little cottage on .38 acres was assessed at $238,851 (a 117.7 percent increase in market value) and 91.9 percent in taxes.
"Shirley" fits in the mean, median and mode of all Huntsville town parcels, and therefore serves as a metaphor for the average property owner in Huntsville. She has been reassessed two years running, and the assessment increased 415 percent.
Her taxes have increased 254 percent with no relief in sight. Where is the truth-in-taxation law and the protections it is supposed to afford "Shirley"?
What has happened to "Shirley" where this has happened before in Ketchum, Jackson or Park City? "Shirley" had to sell in order to survive. The oppressive taxation heaped upon our town and our valley will change the demographics of where we live, make no mistake about that.
And if you don't care, read no further. If we truly love our neighbors (a commandment) and our community, we will stand up -- not wither away like "Stepford" citizens.
And as a nonprimary resident, you, too, should have major concerns about your own properties being taxed at 100 percent. You should be first in line chipping in financial legal support.
So what to do?
* Pay the buck for lawn signs saying "For sale -- can't afford the taxes."
* Secondly, make a banner, "Huntsville town for sale $2,967,345,098.78 (Weber County Assessor's market value)."
* Third, organize a media day. Invite TV and newspaper editors/reporters, and treat them to some home cooking (potluck) in the park.
* Conduct tours in groups of five, along set routes, with hosts pointing out the irregularities and grossly inflated property values, errors made by the assessors.
* And finally, and most importantly, I want you all to very seriously consider this. We are, in fact, being doubly taxed by having to pay both for town and county services: for police protection, animal control, road surfacing and maintenance, snow removal, park upgrades and maintenance, etc.
Tell the commissioners in no certain terms that we are willing to sacrifice our local government just as it was done in the early 1900s.
We are willing to place the infrastructure and maintenance burdens of our small municipality (hundreds of thousands of dollars) squarely upon the county.
It will send a message that we care about our community.
We care more about our own people who comprise our community than we do about finely paved streets or immediately plowed snow.
Bell is retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he was a fighter pilot and test pilot for 20 years. He also retired by Lockheed-Martin after 10 years as a chief of F-16 engineering at Hill Air Force Base.
