(Continued)
Short run (within next three months):
(1) Reject all senior reverse mortgage schemes, caps on reassessments, and the like... special interest legislation as Band Aids to symptoms.
(2) Appoint new leadership to the Tax Commission to immediately correct perceptions of what has happened. It seems obvious the Tax Commission is entirely too close to local governments (Counties). Instead of overseeing them as citizen advocates, the Tax Commission is now working with local governments to help them raise more money than citizens can afford to pay.
(3) Order all County Assessors and Boards of Equalization to honor every residential Property Tax Appeal, including appeals already rejected and returned. Include a mandated apology to citizens for having caused angst and stress. Include a $500 credit/rebate for expenses incurred due to travel, appraisal fees, and time lost from other income earning and "family values" endeavors.
(4) Order all County Assessor offices to "re mass assess" what they have already "mass assessed", i.e. reissue Tax Notifications based upon last years' Market Values.
(5) Announce major changes in legislation are being considered to correct the system for next year. And mean it.
(6) Require each of the 29 Counties justify their budgets to this Committee (and their constituents within every County). Especially, those like Weber County who did not ethically do so with their constituents IAW TNT law, or the intent of TNT law. Only after approval of appropriately justified budgets...release some of the budget short falls, resulting from the above, from State reserves (you have hundreds of millions held in reserve and we all know it).
(7) Force an audit of small business reassessments. They have been hurt as well...although it seems selective. In some communities businesses were not reassessed at all, while others were hit. This seems arbitrary and capricious just as the lousy job of assessments done across most of the State. SLC, oddly/ironically a liberal and democratic stronghold, on the other hand seems to have been done almost reasonably well. I am no liberal or democrat by any means. Do we need to elect democrats to get things done correctly?
If the above measures are taken on Wednesday or at least prior to the end of November when property taxes are due, the voters will recoup some measure of confidence in our legislature. Confidence critical to progress and the future of our State.
In the mid term (January to end of legislative session):
(1) Propose and pass a "Blue Ribbon" study group composed of capable educated and dedicated citizens and non Conflict of Interest pure legislators (assuming there are any). Fund the study group. Charge them with the responsibility to study property tax legislation of every state in the Union to determine facts, legislative lessons learned, economic impacts on various sectors, etc. with a eye toward customizing equitable and fair property taxation for Utah's unique demographics. Prepare a report to the legislature and public with recommendations.
(2) Abandon "Truth in Taxation" law and "current market value" as corrupted and ineffective. It is or "we would not be having this discussion".
(3) Embrace "acquisition value" based property taxation (or even like Washington State, no property taxation) by changing the State Constitution wording from "market value".
(4) Inform the public, stop propagandizing, against "California proposition 13". It only incites negative reactions against legislators who use it. Instead begin to inform the public (and the legislature) about the other 90%+ of America. Inform what the variety of "acquisition value" based systems in use actually are.
(5) Strip from property tax bills all; School Districts, Mosquito Abatement Districts, Libraries, Cemeteries, Water Conservancy Districts, Translators, County Health, Paramedic Funds, Fire Districts, State Assessment & Collection/Multi, County 911 and EM Service Districts, etc.
These have nothing to do with property taxes. Those who do not own property are very likely the majority users of most these services...not just home owners. Fix this by simply placing the burdens on ALL the users (income taxes or better yet user fees). Pass a "gut check". Institute a "head tax" on ultra large families. Make room for more families and decrease demands for services from ultra large families who typically require more socialistic funded services for relief. Require personal accountability for services not socialistic taxation schemes burdening everyone for others' necessities they can not afford.
Require the ever growing list of "services" to prove their requirements for funding to the State. Only AFTER the service requirements (notice I did not say nice to haves) are proven, using cost benefit analysis measures and judgments, release funds from the General Fund to them. Do not play politics with them.
Insist upon Public Service Commission and/or citizen group advocate participation and involvement for credibility. Local governments have proven they are incapable of managing and have no credibility among those who voted for them. The cynical spillover onto state legislators is reaching historic heights.
(6) Reconsider centrally assessed property taxation. The "shift" of tax burden onto home owners over the past ten years is also a major contributing factor to our current property crisis. True, corporations are not taxed - only consumers are taxed. But consider ways to advantage Utah residents when they are consumers. Consider ways to increase nationally lagging household incomes by requiring centrally assessed properties to apply credits or rebates to Utah consumers of their products and services. "Shift" the tax burdens to consumers from out of State if there must be any "shifting" of property tax burdens. Our citizens and small businesses are all tapped out in case no one bothered to tell any of you.
Long Term (2008 and 2009):
(1) Begin now to form a coalition of Western States (Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and California) with significant federally managed and controlled lands. Play by whatever rules are necessary to coerce from the required national congressional assembly the legal reclaiming of State land seized more than a hundred fifty years ago.
(2) Concentrate on federal property "vacated" along the Wasatch front tangent and adjacent to existing business and commerce and population areas with logical spreading to avoid further transportation congestion.
(3) Judiciously legislate legal protections for citizens protecting against developer "boon doggles". Think is terms of the homesteading laws instead. Insure affordable land on which our youth can build for the future instead of scheming to cheat families out of their heritage and homes via "deferred property taxes" schemes thinly veiled to line the pockets of legislative colleagues in the mortgage banking business and real estate business.
(4) Pass legislation placing a college degree prerequisite on Utah Realtors. Presently anyone who can breathe and pass a test, no matter how many times taken, are allowed a license. Brokers recruit such agents for their inventories (friends and relatives) and we suffer under the weight of such unethical business practices. Reform the system. It is broken. Stop the lobby from running the State into the ground. (this added as an afterthought.)
(5) Replace the hundreds of millions of wasted tax dollars on ineffective and inaccurate Assessor offices with a simple $800 Dell personal computer. Institute a simple equitable and fair "acquisition value" taxation system. And YES I know it will take a 2/3s majority of you legislators to change the State Constitution. And YES I know it will require Utah become a "full disclosure" State...like every other State in America by the way. What does THAT say about our culture? And YES I know it will require a majority ratification vote.
Just do it. Or do nothing and allow Utah to become a national disgrace.
(6) Legislators are supposed to be leaders and thinkers. Smart people who act on behalf of their constituents and not at the behest of any lobby group. So lead. Make us proud for a change.
Watch Fox News at Nine tonight or tomorrow night. I hope to attend the "Interim Wednesday meeting assuming my 4 hour treadmill test with nuclear dye infusion in the morning does not preclude attendance in SLC that afternoon. Other "Wingmen" will be there no matter.
namaste,
D-Bell
Wingmen for Property Tax Reform
