More on the Property Tax Issue

by Kathy Bence

Like Fred Birnbaum who wrote the previous Toquerville Sentinel post, I also attended the Washington County School District’s Truth in Taxation hearing. Two days after the hearing, the school board unanimously voted to enact what was the subject of the hearing: they combined the Capital Levy tax and the Debt Service tax into one account, the Capital Levy account.

I’ll confess, much of the hearing was over my head, but from what I understood the district’s purpose for combining accounts was to pay cash, rather than incur debt for all future new construction.

Since then I’ve visited the school board’s webpage, read St George News articles (which seem to be press releases from the school district), and studied Fred Birnbaum’s well-researched post. I wanted to add a few of my thoughts in addition to what Fred wrote.

a lost voice & a blank check

The Truth in Taxation hearing began with a Power Point presentation. The information on this slide was absent from the property owner mailing and St George News article. 

The bullet point in the left column, with the red arrow, under Bonding says, “if a bond election fails, there’s no way to meet capital needs.” Projects financed through bonding are voted on by the public, whereas there is NO public vote on projects using Capital Levy. Now that bonds are gone, the district won’t have to worry about meeting capital needs. The taxpayer will be there to meet the needs—ALWAYS, because there will be no bond elections to fail.

The bullet points in the right column, with the red arrows, under Capital Levy say there’s “no public vote on projects” and the “amount taxpayers pay does not decrease without Board action.” Capital Levy is now the approved solution. Taxpayers will ALWAYS meet capital needs WITHOUT a vote on what they’re paying for. And the amount they pay can ONLY be decreased by the School Board.

In other words, by eliminating the Debt Service tax (bonding) and moving it into the Capital Levy tax, Washington County residents will no longer be approving infrastructure projects, budget caps, and tax rates.

The good news is that there won’t be any more of those pesky bond initiatives, the bad news is we’ve lost our voice and handed over a blank check.

Accountability

While we no longer vote on spending, we still vote on who makes the spending decisions. Toquerville is in voting district 5. David Stirland is our board representative, and he can be contacted through email. His term goes through 2026.

The Utah Code 52-4-203 requires that “written minutes and a recording shall be kept of all open meetings.” As I was perusing the Washington School District website, I couldn’t find any written minutes of their meetings, only recordings. I also noticed there are mostly closed-session meetings.

Now, more than ever, residents should be able to easily follow what is happening with our school board. I would encourage the board to post written school board meeting minutes or, if they’re already on the site, make them easier to find.

Build and maybe they’ll come

Now that school bonds are gone, we’ve lost our input on capital projects that will total $755,957,619, including 11 new schools listed on this slide.

Fred’s post showed that based on the district’s adopted budget school enrollment is projected to drop from an annual growth rate of 4.6% annually over the last four years to 1.1% annually over the next four years.

He wrote, “The fact that enrollment growth is minimal and the Capital plan so large, should raise a red flag.”

To raise that red flag even higher, why are there 11 new schools within the capital plan when the projected enrollment is dropping?

over-allocated water

This Toquerville Sentinel post, Selling Off Our Future For Short-Term Gain, explained how our city along with other Washington County Water Conservancy District cities are facing the stark reality of over-allocated water resources. The article stressed that without the water to sustain our current growth trajectory, unrestrained development will need to be addressed. Since water is obviously needed for development, and schools follow development, this becomes something else to consider before new schools are added.

Sept 15 deadline to appeal your homes’s market value

Not all homeowners will see a tax decrease as in the example from this slide.

If you're concerned because your assessed home value seems too high, be aware that Utah no longer makes home selling prices available publicly because it has become one of 12 non-disclosure states. No one can easily research and dispute the assessed value of your home without finding someone with MLS access (a real estate agent or assessor). 

On the bottom of your Notice of Property Valuation and Tax Changes, under the part in red that says, “THIS IS NOT A BILL DO NOT PAY” you’ll read that if you choose to appeal the market value of your property, you must file an application for review with the Board of Equalization. The deadline is Sept. 15, 2023.

Don’t let it happen here

Regardless of whether your property taxes increased this year, Fred highlighted how the school district’s budget has increased dramatically so these taxes are a ticking time bomb that could explode later.

From my viewpoint, this tax battle was a loss, and we need to keep an eye on our school board to ensure we don’t lose the property tax war. Like many, I came from California where schools seem unaccountable for both their spending and what they teach kids. Let’s not let that happen here.