Gage Froerer

Utah State Legislature Highlights for January 21st-January 25th

2008-01-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

The Legislature began the 2008 session with a huge snowstorm blanketing the newly renovated Capitol. Despite the inclement weather, the Representatives were here eagerly awaiting the beginning of the session. Another highlight of the week was hearing from Governor Huntsman for the annual State of the State address. The Legislators were happy to hear that his priorities for the year were similar to their own, including a continued focus on education funding and health system reform, in addition to caring for Utah's veterans. Other bills that moved forward this week are included below.

 H.B. 1, the Minimum School Program Base Budget, passed the House 71-0 on Thursday, January 24th. Sponsored by Representative Bradley G. Last (R) of St. George, H.B. 1 provided $2.3 billion for public education, including allocating money to provide teachers statewide with a raise in salary. H.B. 1 shows the continued dedication that legislators have to funding public education.

 H.B. 68, Educator Relicensure Initiative, passed the House with a vote of 68-0, on Wednesday, January 23rd. It allows a previously licensed teacher whose license has expired to renew their license in a more streamlined manner. Approximately 28,000 teachers with licenses live in Utah but do not have up-to-date credentials. By allowing these teachers access to an easier method of re-licensure it is hoped that more teachers will be available to lessen the teacher shortage in Utah. According to the sponsor of the bill, Representative Rhonda Rudd Menlove (R) of Garland, H.B. 68 will help decrease the teacher shortage by streamlining the process to regain a license.

 H.B. 129, passed unanimously in the House on Thursday, January 24th, will improve the State’s ability to care for its veterans. Sponsored by Representative Dee (R) of Ogden, H.B. 129 appropriated $19.7 million to build a veterans' nursing home in Ogden, Utah. Currently there is only one such facility in Utah, with a waiting list of one hundred. Veterans looking on from the House gallery (including Utah's only living Congressional Medal of Honor receipient, George E. Wahlen) applauded the effort, and were in turn honored by the representatives.

 H.B. 256, Utah's version of Jessica's Law, passed the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee 9-0 on January 23rd and moved to the House with a favorable recommendation. If passed, it will increase the minimum term of imprisonment for rape of a child, object rape of a child, or sodomy on a child, to 25 years and which may be for life.

Comments

2008-01-04T14:18:00.001-07:00

We just received notice from an interested reader that comments were not enabled on this site. That was an oversight on the blogmeister's part that has now been corrected for future posts.

If you wish to comment on any previous posts, add your comment to this post and reference the appropriate post.

Thanks for your interest.

Immigration a hot topic

2007-12-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Friends and Neighbors,

Immigration will be a hot topic in the 2008 session.

Please feel free to call or email me with your ideas on how we address this very important
issue.

Happy Holiday's

Gage

gfroerer@utah.gov

Click here to read "With feds stuck, states take on immigrationan"

Legislative bills under consideration

2007-12-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Blogmeister Note: Our apologies as Rep. Froerer's office sent this information to us late last week. While it may look like a simple post, it took some time to download, then upload the attached files so you are able to download. Confused? Some of the Draft Bill files are large, so allow some time for the page to open when you click on the link.

Dear Ogden Valley Residents,

I would like to personally thank all those concerned citizens that attended the recent working group meeting on property taxes at the Huntsville Library. Their involvement will be a benefit to the entire State as we analyze correcting our current property tax system.

A special Thanks to Mr. John Primbs, the moderator and coordinator of the meeting. He did a great job of keeping us all on track and focused on the main issue of good public tax policy.

I am attaching with this letter several bills that are now under consideration on the property tax debate. I would appreciate your comments on these together with any ideas that are not present in these bills. I will be forwarding additional bills to this blog as they become available. The drafting process for bills is fairly lengthy and all bills are also available on the state legislature home page when they are ready. http://www.le.state.ut.us/

Thanks again for your help and support on this important issue and please feel free to call or email me with suggestions or ideas.

Gage Froerer
State Representative District 8

Draft Bill 0379-005 Property Tax Assessment Revisions

Draft Bill 0295-017 Truth in Taxation Amendments

Draft Bill 0289-001 Repeal of Board Leeway for Reading Improvement

Draft Bill 0322-005 Transparency in Government Finance

Draft Bill 0651-004 Public School Funding

Draft of Bill proposed by Revenue Tax Committee on property tax assessment revisions

2007-11-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Draft of Bill proposed by Revenue Tax Committee on property tax assessment revisions.

Email Gage with questions or comments: gfroerer@utah.gov

Property Tax Assessment Revisions (Large file - be patient while it loads)

Truth in Taxation ammendments - Part 1

Truth in Taxation ammendments - Part 2

2 NAT'L MEDIA GIANTS INVESTIGATE & SUPPORT UTAH'S REF 1

2007-11-01T12:06:00.000-06:00

Two national articles in support of Referendum 1

"Something" by George Will

Utahns Can Vote for School Choice Tuesday by John Stossel

Utah State Legislature Revenue Update

2007-10-28T02:04:00.000-06:00

This revenue update submitted by Representative Froerer and details Tax Collections.

Tax Rollback case / Property Tax and the Utah Constitution

2007-10-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

A couple of updates have been submitted by Rep. Froerer:

Rep. Froerer,

Attached is a copy of the case that you might be interested in. In 1980 or1981, the Utah Legislature passed a statute that rolled property values back to 1978 values. The Utah Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional and struck it down. The case is Rio Algom v. San Juan County.

In my opinion, any rollback would be unconstitutional and would require constitutional amendment.

Angie

Angela D. Oakes
Associate General Counsel
Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel

Also, a document detailing the state constitution as it relates to Property Tax assessments along with some additional graphs.

Senator wants a 'gatekeeper' in towns' incorporation process

2007-10-19T15:06:00.000-06:00

Gage in the news

Senator wants a 'gatekeeper' in towns' incorporation process - By Rosemary Winters The Salt Lake Tribune

Deseret News Article

2007-10-15T09:21:00.000-06:00

10/14/2007 PROPERTY TAX NOTICES -- A SHOCK IN THE MAIL - Deseret News

Rio Algom Property Tax Case - Utah Supreme Court Case

2007-10-11T20:39:00.000-06:00

Rio vs. San Juan County Supreme court case

From: Angie Oakes
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:12 PM
To: Gage Froerer
Subject: Fwd: LexisNexis(R) Rio Algom Property Tax Case (1861:51785210)

Rep. Froerer,

Attached is a copy of the Utah Supreme Court case Rio Algom that I mentioned to you during our conversation. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this case or anything else.

Angie

Angela D. Oakes
Associate General Counsel
Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel

Email Thread From Gage and tax rates from Utah State Property Tax division

2007-10-10T21:32:00.000-06:00

Spreadsheet of 9 year tax rates by County

----- Original Message -----

From: Jean Shaw

To: GAGE H FROERER

Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:17 PM

Subject: Re: Fw: Requests for Utah State Tax Commission Audit Results

Gage,
I've attached rates for all entities for past years this includes their budgets.

There are four counties who have a higher tax rate than Weber this year:
Emery .004412
Millard .003768
Piute 004066
SanJuan .004071
Usually counties have a higher rate because values are generally lower overall and they have less revenue sources besides property tax with which they fund their services (ie: less sales tax, fee-in-lieu etc.) Other counties provide less service.

There are other county-wide numbers that might help you from our website:
http://propertytax.utah.gov/finalannualstats/finalannuals.html

Values along the Wasatch Front as well as many other areas in Utah have really jumped the past few years and many citizens in these areas are noticing huge increases to their tax bills.

I also noticed that Weber County funds a county library, and parmedic services both these rates are part of their county's total tax rate.
Davis County's Library is it's own entity with it's own rate so it isn't part of the county's rate.

EXAMPLE:
Davis County rate = .002189 generating $28,606,680 (total Davis Co. value for 2007 is 14,301,675,652)
Davis County Library rate = .000375 generating $4,899,164

Weber County rate = .003608 generating $33,399,732 - this funds library ($5,693,136), paramedics ($1,462,627), (total Weber Co. value for 2007 is 10,695,113,403)

Hopefully this will help. I'd love to buy "Huntsville" if I could.

jean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jean Shaw
Research Consultant
Property Tax Division
801-297-3636
jeanshaw@utah.gov

>>> "GAGE H FROERER" 10/10/07 10:42 AM >>>
Jean,

Could you please review the attached email and let me know if you can shed any light on his questions.

Thanks,

Gage
----- Original Message -----
From: D-Bell
To: Gage Froerer
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 9:00 PM
Subject: Requests for Utah State Tax Commission Audit Results

Dear Gage,

When we "bumped into each other yesterday" I asked where the audit information..........

State Tax Audit on Weber County

2007-10-08T11:43:00.000-06:00

2nd Request-Please find State Tax Audit on Weber County.

Resubmitted for those who have not received a copy.

Gage

Also posted, is a flow chart of the Property Tax Administration - Players and Responsibilities.

NOTE: To rotate, click save to download file to your desktop. Then open file in Acrobat reader. From the top menu, select "View", then "rotate View."

State of Utah Financial Highlights -FY ending June 30, 2007

2007-10-05T11:33:00.000-06:00

Here are the Utah Highlights for fiscal year 2007 as submitted by Representative Froerer.

2007-09-22T18:14:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of articles submitted by Gage:

First, from the Deseret News - 9/20/2007 LAWMAKERS MAY HEAD OFF REVOLT OVER PROPERTY TAXES If counties don't fix problems with property-tax assessments, some lawmakersare threatening that the state Legislature will do it for them.

And a note from Gage on 9/21/2007

Dear Friends and Neighbors, Please find the attached article regarding the Apple Act that is listed on my list of options to help reduce property tax in the Valley and the State. I have been actively working with Rep. Bishop's office to push this legislation and would encourage you to email or write his office in support of this measure. Thanks to all that participated in this weeks property tax hearings at the State Capitol. We had a great showing and excellent comments by all that spoke.

Rep. Gage Froerer

Hatch and Bishop introduce APPLE Act again - The Salt Lake Tribune

Property Tax Relief Options 9-13-07

2007-09-13T14:48:00.000-06:00

Property Tax Relief Options
REP. Gage Froerer
gfroerer@utah.gov or cell 801-391-4233

1. Target property tax relief for the elderly and/or poor.
a. Status: Bill is written and will be in form similar to HB078.

2. Increase limits on the circuit breaker to allow more people to qualify for relief.
a. Status: Bill file is open and will be presented in 2008 session for approval.

3. Allow the State sponsored 45% residential exemption to be applied on land and improvements for primary residents regardless of lot size. Presently it is capped at 1 acre lot size.
a. Status: Bill file is open and will be presented to committee in October 2007 and presented in the 2008 legislature for approval.

4. Eliminate or reduce the maximum authorized property tax levies. Counties, school districts, municipalities and special districts are all authorized to impose a wide variety of property tax levies for various purposes.
a. Status: Levies are currently being looked at by State Revenue Tax committee to see if any could be reduced or eliminated. Some may be required to charge fee.

5. Roll back certified tax rates. Require that all taxing entities “roll back” property tax levies they now impose by some amount. For example, amend truth in taxation to provide that a “certified rate” (a rate that does not trigger truth in taxation hearings) is a rate that will yield 90% of the property tax revenue that the entity budgeted or collected last year.

6. Require and increase in the certified tax rate to be approved by the electorate.
a. Status: The legislature has imposed similar requirements in previous tax years.

7. Remove property tax authority for schools or other taxing districts and replace it with a like amount on a statewide sales tax. School districts collected about $1.078 billion in property tax revenue in 2006. Would require an increase in sales and use tax by about 2.5%.

8. Freeze the property tax and/or assessments and not have it increase until the property transfers ownership. A constitutional amendment is required to implement this change. Requires 2/3 vote of both chambers and a vote by the electorate.

9. Link tax cuts and/or increase to the median value of all homes in a given county. Require counties to use the median value across the board for any increase in assessed value. A constitutional amendment would also be required since this would change the Fair Market Value portion of state law.

10. Mandate that all counties reappraise on an annual county wide basis. This would help eliminate the large spikes or discrepancies in value in different parts of the county.

11. Petition our Federal Officials to more actively pursue “The Apple Initiative”. Would require payment from the Feds on the Federal owned land in the state that is un-taxable.

Please review and email me your thoughts on any of the above options. Feel free to add additional options that you would like the State to consider.

Thanks,

Gage

Public Hearing on Property Tax Issues

2007-09-11T21:13:00.000-06:00

The Utah Legislature's Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee is sponsoring a public hearing on property tax issues. The committee wants to hear what citizens have to say about property taxes and to receive suggestions for improving the state's property tax system.
The public hearing will be held:

DATE: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
TIME: 3:30 p.m.
PLACE: W130 House Building, State Capitol Complex, Salt Lake City

If you can't attend the hearing, but still want to comment, send an e-mail to:
taxcomment@utah.gov

or write to:

Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee
c/o 210 House Building
State Capitol Complex
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114

Articles Submitted by State Legislator Gage Froerer

2007-09-11T21:03:00.000-06:00

We finish up today with several Property tax and Proposition 13 related articles and documents forwarded to us by our esteemed State Legislature and Huntsville resident, Gage Froerer.