Feeling robbed at tax time? Chin up - consider the folks in Detroit who paid $10,003 in property tax on a $300,000 home in 2006. Detroit held the top spot in the report's ranking of 53 major cities throughout all 50 states.
Salt Lake City came in 45th - on that same $300,000 house, residents here paid $2,235. Move that home to Honolulu, and the annual tax tab dropped to $871.
The report by the nonprofit think tank concluded that Utah's truth-in-taxation law has kept the state's property tax burden relatively low, even with a slight climb that started in the late 1990s.
All true, said Ronald Mortensen, a tax watchdog with Citizens' Coalition for Tax Fairness. However, Utah's overall tax burden ranks much higher, he said.
"Our incomes tend to be lower," Mortensen pointed out. "And our income tax and sales tax tend to be above average. Also the fees we pay factor into that overall burden."
Royce Van Tassell, vice-president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, said a report compiled by his organization places Utah 10th from the top in terms of total tax loads.
"We are fortunate to have a very effective property tax system. Truth in taxation works well," Van Tassell said. "But clearly there is need for further refinement. Utahns need lower taxes."
During the 2008 Legislative session - which wraps up next Wednesday - dozens of property and sales tax measures have been on the table, some dealing with a shift from one tax to another.
Several advocacy groups are warily watching those bills, including the Coalition for Religious Communities, which favors eliminating the food sales tax entirely because it overburdens people on low and fixed incomes. The nonprofit Voices for Utah Children opposes a shift from property tax to sales tax, saying such a move would stress the budgets of young families.
So far, lawmakers have refrained from making any sweeping tax changes. A $340 million drop in projected revenues curbed much of the tax-cutting fervor of lawmakers.
"It's basically Band-Aids on the current system," Mortensen said.
cmckitrick@sltrib.com
