CACHE COUNTY – After much discussion and debate, members of the Cache County Council finally settled on the moving target of a property tax increase for 2026 at their regular meeting on Oct. 14.
In accordance with state law, council chair Sandi Goodlander formally announced Cache County’s intent to levy a property tax rate that exceeds the certified tax rate for next year. Specifically, she stated that the county would be seeking a 10 percent tax rate increase, which would generate more than $3.7 million in new revenue to fund inflationary increases in personnel and pubic safety expenses.
In the wake of the State Tax Commission’s recent denial of a proposed tax hike would have resulted in a revenue boost of more than $6 million for the Cache County School District, the members of the county council were careful to observe correct procedures under the Truth-in-Taxation law.
Later in the Oct. 14 gathering, the panel set the public hearing on the tax increase mandated by the Truth-in-Taxation law for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18.
In previous discussions on the proposed budget for 2026, the council members had been considering a property tax increase of up to 18 percent, while hoping that a tax hike that large would not be necessary to cover a projected budget shortfall for 2026.
Thanks to recent efforts to trim the proposed budget by County Auditor Matt Funk and newly installed County Executive George Daines, the estimated need for a property tax hike has been reduced by nearly half.
Under the state’s Truth-In-Taxation law, taxing entities are required to hold public hearings if they want to increase property tax revenues beyond what their certified tax rates generates.
The TNT law is revenue-driven, meaning the requirement for a hearing is based on the taxing entity collecting more revenue than the previous year, not just on changes in the tax rate.
The purpose of those hearings is to inform taxpayers about proposed increases and allow them to provide input before the increase goes into effect.
(5) comments
So last year they raised the value of thousands of acres by double https://cacheut.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8046ffadb2a14d8d9b648419b4dd547f
which is equivalent to a 100% increase and now they are adding another 10%. From 3 years ago that is a 120% increase in tax burden on the property owner.
Thanks for saving us the 8% I guess....
The county doesn't get any more tax revenue from property values rising. They only get more revenue from new growth and raising the tax rate.
Really? Property taxes are formulated by multiplying the assessed value by the local tax rate. So if my property value was say $10,000 and the rate was .01 my taxes would then be $100. If my value doubles so it is now $20,000 times that by the same rate of .01 my taxes are now $200. If the extra $100 isn't revenue then please explain to me what it is? As a property owner that doubled their check to the county I'd like to know where it went?
Yes, really! When the values go up overall, the state sets a lower certified rate so the county, school district, or city/town gets the same revenue as the year before. So in your example, the rate would now be 0.005. $20,000 x .005 = $100. This is for the entire county. If a single property rises more than the average increase, their taxes will go up, otherwise, their taxes will go down. Propertytax.utah.gov/rates
So Looking at the tax rates for Cache valley, Starting on page 27, grabbing one at random area 009. The Rate in 2023 was .008137 for 2024 it dropped to .007666 so you are correct in saying that the full 100% increase in property value didn't equate to a 100% increase in taxes. If my math is correct it did equate to a 93.29% tax increase. There was a 4.71% decrease in rate but still a 100% increase in assessed value. For the county to only receive the same amount there would have to be a substantial amount of properties that either weren't raised in value or numerous that were lowered in value for the over all amount of revenue to remain the same. Looking at the county map assessed amounts I don't see that correlation.
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