This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Bert Hulet is tired of hearing about statistics and numbers and standard deviations when it comes to property taxes.
For him, it's personal.
His father lost everything in the Great Depression. He later recovered enough to buy a farm, but had to give it up in 1939 because he couldn't pay the property and water taxes.
Now Hulet sees a similar threat hanging over his retired friends in Bountiful, where household property taxes increased more than 300 percent on the east side of the city.
"This is sick, it's got to stop," he said. "I have neighbors who have been in that area 35 to 45 years, and they're going to lose their houses in the next couple of years trying to pay property taxes."
Hulet was one of nearly 30 Utah residents who testified Wednesday before the Legislature's Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee, many shouting about several-thousand dollar increases in property taxes in a single year.
Huntsville resident Donald Bell brought a petition with 1,000 signatures of Ogden Valley residents decrying the assessed value increases of houses and land in the area.
"We feel we're being destroyed by desperate taxation," he said. "We must act and we must act now. No pussyfooting around."
But legislators are still looking for a solution.
Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said he heard unsatisfactory answers from county assessors in response to this year's "perfect storm" for raising taxes and the ire of property owners.
He cited school districts that raised property taxes even after the largest increase in school funding in recent history and water districts increasing taxes to their highest limits for unidentified future projects.
"We are hearing throughout the whole state concerns with property taxes," Valentine said. "There is not a good relationship between the ability for someone to pay their property taxes and how much property they own."
He has several possible solutions, from deferred payment to a tax rate cap to an averaging of several years of property rates to lessen what he calls the "sticker shock" of recent tax increases.
Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, Senate committee chairman, sees problems clustering in Davis and Weber counties and other "problem spots" in the state.
He would like to see a law requiring any tax hike greater than inflation go to a public vote.
"We should let the people decide," he said.
But that doesn't help people this year who face a doubling or tripling of their taxes.
And it doesn't ease the anger of those who see such jumps when neighbors across the street see only a small bump in property taxes.
"Enough is enough. If it isn't fair and equitable, it isn't constitutional," said David Piggott of Bountiful.
Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, sympathized with those in attendance.
"The issue here is coming up with a better approach so citizens feel they are being treated fairly," Bramble said. "Everyone hates taxes . . . but if they're not distributed across the population, we all become somewhat rebellious."
Gordon Tyler of Centerville begged the committee to find a lasting solution.
"It's up to you if you want to create a history for your kids or grandkids that Utah is [one of the] highest-taxed states," Tyler said. "You can pass legislation that is a Band-Aid or legislation that is surgery."
A taxing problem
The issue: Some homeowners have been hit hard by property-tax hikes.
* What happened: A Legislature panel held a public hearing, where angry residents testified.
* What's next: The committee will look at the "sticker shock" factor and property tax increases next month.