Utah State Tax Auditor John Dougall announced the new property values heatmap July 26. He said it’s about making publicly-available data easily accessible to the public.
“What we decided to do was deploy a heatmap, a visual representation across the state—on a parcel-by-parcel basis—of what was taking place in terms of changes in property values,” Dougall said.
Dougall’s office reached out to all the tax assessors in Utah for taxpayer data.
19 counties opted-in and supplied the data while 10 counties opted out, including Summit and Wasatch counties.
Instead, Summit County Assessor Stephanie Poll launched her office’s own version of the tool July 25, and Wasatch County said it is close behind.
“We kind of have to smile that Mr. Dougall thinks that he has invented the ‘heatmap wheel,’” Poll said.
But Dougall says his office created the statewide heatmap in large part because of taxpayer complaints in the Wasatch Back.
“Over the past few years, we've heard various complaints from citizens around the state, but especially in the Summit and Wasatch county areas, expressing concerns about their property valuations,” he said. “Most folks judge whether they're fairly assessed their value based on two factors: one, on the absolute number, do they think it's reasonable; and two, are they being treated fairly compared to their neighbors.”
Both Poll and Wasatch County Assessor Todd Griffin agreed taxpayers want fair taxes. They told KPCW they opted out primarily to protect residents’ privacy.
Griffin said his county asked for a signed memo detailing how taxpayers’ data would be used, and never received one.
“They were asking for pretty extensive data including names, addresses, that sort of thing,” he said. “And not everybody wishes to have their names and so forth that public.”
However, the information Dougall asked for and has published is already publicly available.
Poll said she and other county assessors questioned Dougall’s office on why the data should be consolidated and published on a parcel-by-parcel basis.
“We just weren't given an answer we're very comfortable with,” she said.
Dougall’s map doesn’t publish taxpayers’ names. It focuses on building information and tax changes over time.
But for Griffin, the state’s map actually ended up excluding information he said would have helped taxpayers put rates in context compared to their neighbors.
“Two properties side-by-side may have two different tax abatement programs,” Griffin said. “Whether it be urban farming, Greenbelt, primary, secondary, there's various reasons that somebody really receives some sort of tax relief.”
On top of building and tax changes, Summit County’s map shares a building’s price per square foot and additional information about how a building is used that could affect how it’s taxed.
“Initially, we started this goal [of creating] a transparency tool,” Poll said. “What we're finding is it's actually becoming an educational tool.”
She said Summit County taxpayers have contacted the assessor’s office with educated questions and been able to better understand how their taxes are calculated.
Taxpayers cannot appeal their tax rate as such, but they can appeal their taxable value. The deadline to appeal is 5 p.m. on Sept. 15, in both counties.
Click here to access the Summit County property value heatmap.
Click here to access the Utah property value heatmap.
Wasatch County didn’t provide a date for when it would publish its own map, only that it was coming soon.
