If this year’s proposed tax rates are adopted, the majority of tax rates for cities and towns in Tooele County will be down from last year’s rates.

According to data provided by the Tooele County Auditor’s Office, most proposed rates decreased in the range of about 7 percent to 11 percent from last year’s rates.

“The tax rate is basically revenue-driven, so as you have more people come to the county, the values go up and you can budget for the same amount of revenue that you budgeted last year, adjusted for new growth,” said Tooele County Auditor Mike Jensen. “As you have more value come in, it drives the rate down.”

The two areas vying to become Tooele County’s second-largest city, Grantsville and Stansbury Park, were among those communities that increased taxes. Grantsville City proposed a 3.5 percent tax rate increase, while the Stansbury Park Service Agency’s Greenbelt Service Area proposed increasing its rate 4.3 percent and its Recreation Service Area rate by 4.2 percent.

Grantsville’s rate was approved in July, and was set at the certified tax rate — the rate that would bring in the same amount of tax revenue as the year before, taking into account new growth. The increase in this year’s rate is due to a miscalculation in last year’s tax rate.

Jensen said there was some property in Grantsville last year that was recorded in the calculations twice, which increased valuations and decreased 2007’s rate.

“People weren’t double assessed, we just had it included in our figures twice,” he said.

Randy Jones, Stansbury Park Service Agency trustee responsible for finance/budgets, said the slight increase in the tax rate for greenbelt and recreation is because of increased costs, including the increased cost of fuel.

“We have an increase in acreage we’re taking care of so that’s really the main reason,” Jones said Wednesday, adding the agency could raise the tax rate quite a bit more but haven’t because they want to keep it low in light of current conditions.

Royce Van Tassel, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, said there’s no question the tax burden Utahns face is too high.

“We’re well above the national average when you look at the overall tax-and-fee burden that Utahns face,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to see taxpayers, all taxpayers, keep more of their hard-earned dollars in their pockets, especially in these difficult economic times.”

He said in the future he thinks elected officials should strive to stay within their budgets and say “we’re going to have to tighten our belts and find out what’s critical and what isn’t, and cut what needs to be cut.”

Tooele City proposed the second-greatest decrease of all cities and towns in the county, down 10.4 percent from 2007.Tooele County’s tax rate dropped 7.1 percent from last year’s rate.

Van Tassel said according to data compiled by the Legislature, this year there have been 95 Truth in Taxation hearings held by taxing entities statewide — a requirement when an entity wants to set a rate higher than the certified rate. In 2007, there were 69.

“This clearly has been the highest number of Truth in Taxation hearings that have ever been held,” Van Tassel said.

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com