Property taxes are due next Monday — never a happy date on any taxpayer’s calendar. This year, however, more home and land owners seem to be caught in the crossfire of rising assessed property values, a slumping real estate market and a worsening economic crisis.

According to Tooele County Assessor Wendy Shubert, 140 residents filed an appeal for the value of their property. Seventy-four of those were granted their request and 25 were denied. Shubert said the number of appeals for property values were higher than normal this year.

“But compared to other counties that rate wasn’t high at all,” she said. “So that means our values are low.”

Not all taxpayers are convinced their assessed values are fair, however. Dwight Clark, who lives in Erda, said property tax increases are nothing new, but the rate of those increases has skyrocketed over the past two to three years.

“In my case, they say my property is worth a whole bunch,” he said. “But it isn’t. It’s only worth what I paid for it. And they say ‘Well if you sell it...’ but I won’t sell it.”

Clark thinks the current system is imperfect.

“The current law is faulty in that it allows the continual rise of property values,” he said. “To me, the whole property tax structure is just out of kilter, and unless the Legislature does something this year to remedy that, I think we’re going to see an uprising and a Proposition 13 [a California proposition passed in 1978 that essentially limited property tax increases so long as a property wasn’t sold] take place in the state of Utah.”

Arnold Robison, who lives on Main Street in Tooele, said his property value spiked this year, causing his taxes to jump about $400.

“I know with the economy the way it is that the property isn’t worth anything near what they say it is,” he said, adding in the past decade increases have been small, until this year.

The amount of property taxes each homeowner pays depends on where one lives, what taxing entities are in that district, and the rates they levy, as well as assessed property values in the area.

To give an example of how property taxes have risen recently, however, Shubert cites the example of one Stansbury Park home. In 2004, its market value was $140,383, and taxes on it were $1,083. This year, the same home’s market value was $203,786 with taxes of $1,399. That’s a 29 percent increase in four years.

Property taxes on that home increased roughly $25 from 2004 to 2005. From 2005 to 2006, taxes increased nearly $50. From 2006 to 2007, taxes went up almost $100. And from 2007 to 2008, taxes increased more than $140.

Shubert said the rise in property valuations and taxes is due to a market boom that started in 2006 and continued until early 2008. There was a factor — an increase across the board — of 15 percent on buildings, not land, in both 2006 and 2007, and a factor of 5 percent on buildings and 25 percent on the land this year, she said.

“These factor percentages are determined by the sales ratio study that is developed by the State Tax Commission,” she said. “We are mandated by the State Tax Commission to keep our home values, and other properties, as close to market values as possible for the assessment year. Should we fail to keep our values at market value, the Sales Tax Commission will order us to factor.”

However, Coldwell Banker broker Brad Sutton said he believes the market boom was already over by the beginning of this year.

“I think that early this year it [the market boom] was already over with,” he said.

He thinks next year there should be a reduction in property values.

Many taxpayers understand why their assessed values rise during a boom. But they also wonder why those values don’t ever seem to get reassessed downward during a market slump.

Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst said the commission tried to offer some relief this year by lowering its tax rate.

“If people looked at the rate, they’d say we actually dropped it. It is about the appreciation,” he said. “What’s happened in Tooele County is all these people have shopped these other towns and have come out here because it’s cheaper. Our values are still lower than the average, and that’s what’s precipitated a lot of this growth in our county.”

Hurst said he’s interested in the idea of acquisition cost.

“One thing that intrigued me is acquisition cost, meaning when you buy a piece of property then it’s taxed on what it cost when you bought it and so that’s the tax rate that you pay on,” he said.

Hurst added that property taxes are a double-edged sword.

“We all want our values to go up so if we decide to sell we can get that increased value,” he said. “That’s why real estate’s been such a good investment. So we want that to happen but then don’t want taxes to go up.”

Walt Holmes, a longtime Stansbury Park resident and former service agency trustee, said generally his property taxes over the past 10 years have increased in increments. But every once in a while, when they the area would get re-evaluated, that would cause a bigger jump.

“We’ve only had a downturn in really the last year, so whether or not property values are adequately addressed by the county for tax purposes I’m not sure,” he said. “I think it’ll be better next year. If there is a big drop in property values, then I would hope the county would take that into consideration.”

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com