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After a school funding equalization program in Salt Lake County expires in 2016, residents of Jordan School District could be asked to pay an annual tax increase of roughly $35 for every $100,000 of property value, Jon Larsen, the district's interim business administrator, said Tuesday.

But school officials argue the change in taxes would not be a true increase but instead would return the tax rate to where it was intended to be since 2009.

"Jordan did not get a financial benefit from this program; however, the taxpayers did," Larsen said. "The original goal was to redistribute the money to help out the west side. It just redistributed who was paying the taxes that Jordan received."

After Canyons School District split from Jordan in 2008, the Utah Legislature passed a law diverting from Salt Lake County's east side school districts to support west side schoolsbecause the split left Jordan with a smaller tax base.

But even with the equalization bill, the deficit caused by the split was never made up.

Larsen said an amendment to that bill went unnoticed by many educators and lawmakers, requiring that a district's tax rate be automatically adjusted to maintain revenue neutrality — for every dollar that came in from outside the district, the same amount was subtracted from the tax bill for residents of Jordan district.

The result of that amendment, Larsen said, was that schools and school districts in Salt Lake County saw consistent levels of revenue, but tax rates on the east side were increased to supplement decreased taxes for residents in Jordan School District.

But when the equalization program sunsets in December 2016, Larsen said, Jordan School District will be required to hold truth in taxation hearings to regain the roughly $10 million it receives from other districts to maintain current funding levels.

"There's a reason they nicknamed it TNT," he said of truth in taxation proceedings. "It usually ends up being a very explosive meeting."

Jordan administrators held a town hall meeting Tuesday at West Jordan High School aimed at informing residents about the upcoming shortfall and to solicit their support in asking the Legislature to clarify the county equalization law.

Jolynne Alger, a parent and member of the Eastlake Elementary School Community Council, compared the equalization program to a father paying child support only to see the mother use the money for a shopping spree.

She said the district's children have missed out on educational resources because of a legislative mistake that unknowingly put money into parents' pockets.

"That mistake needs to be corrected as soon as possible," she said. "I don't view it as a tax increase because I haven't been paying the taxes I should have been paying."

Several members of the Jordan School Board attended Tuesday's meeting and expressed a desire to avoid holding truth in taxation hearings, instead preferring the district's rate to be automatically increasedto reflect the decrease implemented by the 2009 bill.

Board Vice President Susan Pulsipher said the board held hearings in 2009 to set a higher rate, and to hold further hearings to maintain that same rate would send the wrong message to taxpayers.

"If we needed to do it, I would do it," she said. "But in fairness and as a transparency issue, it might suggest things that aren't true."