This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Huntsville resident D. Bell has a grand, if tongue-in-cheek, idea for calling attention to the plight of Ogden Valley residents whose property taxes doubled - and even tripled - this year.
He proposes that Huntsville Town put itself up for sale: lock, stock and tractor shed.
"We need to have a nice sign or banner made, on which it says, 'Huntsville Town for Sale $2,967,345,098.78 (Weber County Assessor's Market Value),' " Bell said in a recent Town Council meeting.
Bell, a retired fighter pilot and test pilot who moved to Huntsville in 1990, says the town needs some kind of stunt - he pulled the price tag out of the air - to get the attention of the Weber County Commission.
So far, he and other residents in the bucolic valley 10 miles east of Ogden have been given empathy - but no promise of reduced taxes.
They've circulated petitions, drawing more than 660 online signatures alone from valley residents. They've solicited horror stories on an Internet blog, talked about the "Pineview Tea Party" - a reference to the pre-Revolution Boston Tea Party - and called for a Utah-style Proposition 13, that 1978 California measure that capped property taxes.
They've even hired an attorney to look into whether Weber County broke any laws.
Now, Town Councilman Richard Sorensen has ordered 1,000 signs that residents intend to post on their lawns declaring their property "For Sale. Can't afford the taxes."
"This is all we talk about up here," says Bell. "People are really stirred up."
The pain, says Weber Commissioner Craig Dearden, is real and it's understandable.
But that doesn't mean the commission can do anything about it, he said.
Dearden notes that state law dictates the way properties are valued, and Ogden Valley has been one of Utah's hottest real-estate markets ever since the 2002 Winter Olympics brought the world to nearby Snowbasin Ski Resort.
Property values are soaring, forcing property taxes through the roof.
Weber County has no surplus in its budget, as did Davis County, where commissioners are using the unexpected growth in taxes from new construction to give rebates to beleaguered taxpayers, Dearden said.
Moreover, Weber County has spent nearly 10 months of the 12-month budget already, so it would be tough to cut costs at this point, he said.
Instead, the commission is working with northern Utah lawmakers to push for legislation to prevent similar skyrocketing property taxes in the future, he said.
Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, says he hopes to propose several pieces of legislation, including bills to raise family income thresholds for those seeking abatements or circuit-breaker cuts in property taxes.
He also hopes to introduce legislation that would allow seniors to postpone paying higher taxes until their property sells.
Froerer, whose own property value and taxes doubled this year, says he has spent hours with county, school district and state Tax Commission officials, and is convinced a tax rebate cannot be done without creating a crisis next year.
Nonetheless, he says, he empathizes with the tax revolters.
"I feel their pain because I'm in the same boat."
Bell, who got a standing ovation at a community meeting when he suggested the county assessor's staff be given drug tests because of the "outrageous" values, says he has found dozens of errors in assessments while poring over property-tax records.
His home, which has a 140-square-foot unfinished fruit room, is valued on the basis of a 1,300-square-foot finished basement, he said.
"It's just not fair what they've done. They hired some temps off the street to collect data. Whatever they did, they did it so badly, I think it's unconstitutional."
He cites the example of one Huntsville widow in her mid-80s who lives in a 1908 cottage. Her home was assessed at $109,666 in 2006, up 63 percent from the year before. This year, it was valued at $238,851 and her taxes went up 92 percent.
Doug Larsen, Weber County's chief deputy assessor, says it's not true that his office hired temps to set values.
The higher values reflect the most up-to-date real-estate data in the valley, he said. But he acknowledged some mistakes may have crept in.
"You're always going to have some errors," said Larsen. "Our goal is to value properties correctly."
Town Councilman Sorensen, an airline pilot, says that while he's able to afford the tax hike (his went from $1,528 last year to $2,795 this year), the valley is filled with elderly residents on fixed incomes who may be forced to sell.
"They are being priced out of their homes," he said.
Sorensen doesn't hold much hope in the Legislature fixing the problems.
"We need to do a statewide initiative. We'll need a grass-roots citizens effort."
tax appeals
There could be 2,000, or as many as 2,300, Weber County tax appeals by the Monday deadline.
In a typical year, 1,300 to 1,500 county taxpayers appeal their assessments.