The Uintah County Commission meeting was packed on Monday as public comment was taken on the 2017 Certified Tax Rate. The overwhelming feedback from the public was the belief that the Commission should cut the budget and not place further burden on the taxpayers. “These are hard times” was a common statement accompanied by the call for the county to join with business and property owners and cut back in order to make it through. Julie Runolfson presented her research on the county taxes and asked why the ratio of centrally assessed to locally assessed taxes is shifting more on the locally assessed taxpayers. She also asked why the county continues to collect on a rainy day fund when in the past that fund was stopped due to economic downturn. Last week, Clerk/Auditor Mike Wilkins presented a rate of .002982 which would bring in $13 million 800 thousand dollars to the county to meet the county’s obligations. This is the same amount collected as last year but the rate has gone up slightly from .002874 to make up for a loss in centrally assessed taxes. This increases the cost to property owners by $6 dollars on a $100,000 dollar home or $11 dollars on a $100,000 dollar business. Wilkins also explained that over 40 percent of the $13.8 million dollars comes from the top 10 taxpayers in the County which include big names like Anadarko, QEP, and Newfield. Once you add the rest of centrally assessed taxes it covers 60 percent of the $13.8 million dollar budget. Commissioner Bill Stringer explained that the purpose of Monday’s hearing was to gather comments and a decision on the 2017 Certified Tax Rate will be made during a special meeting on Wednesday.
