The Vernal City Council met last week, approving a certified tax rate with a minor increase per household. The rate has an increase of $3 dollars per house per year on an average $200,000 dollar appraised value. “This rate remains among the lowest 10 percent of cities in the State for cities and towns,” shares Vernal City Manager Quinn Bennion. “This is higher than last year ONLY to cover the Homeless Fee that is being assessed by the State. If the state legislature had not taken the city’s sales tax revenue to pay for homeless services along the Wasatch Front, the property tax rate would have remained level.” Bennion explains that only five homeless shelters in the state are supported by the money taken from city and county sales taxes across the state. Four of them are on the Wasatch Front and one is in St. George. Bennion says this is a terrible bill for rural Utah who are “double hit” by paying for those homeless shelters along with their own. The minor increase in the certified tax rate is a result of the state’s tax increase to support those five shelters.
