- Home
- Government
- Tax Education 101
Tax Education 101
Know How Your Taxes Work in South Jordan
Between property tax, sales tax, franchise taxes and more, there’s a lot to know about where your tax money goes. This page is dedicated to pointing the public to resources about how the City of South Jordan funds the services it provides—everything from street maintenance and plowing to parks and public safety. Want to dig in deeper to South Jordan's funding? Check out our Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Book (PDF).
Tax Education Articles
-
-
Property Taxes Fund Public Safety
Did you know that City property taxes fund our Police and Fire Departments? In fact, South Jordan City uses those property taxes to pay for 100% of your Police Department and approximately 19% of your Fire Department. Read on... -
Tax Education 101 - Parks
South Jordan’s parks and trails are beautiful. South Jordan has 35 city parks, more than 9 miles of trails, 3 fishing ponds, 68 acres of natural open space and boasts a variety of recreational fields and courts throughout the city. Read on...
/CivicAlerts.aspx
Property Taxes
Quick Property Tax Facts (As of 2022)
Here are some other fun facts to remember about how property taxes work in Salt Lake County and what portion the City receives.
- South Jordan’s property tax rate is lower than more than half the other cities in the County.
- The City receives only $0.14 of every dollar paid in property tax and that accounts for nearly a quarter of the City’s budgeted general fund revenues.
- The Jordan School District receives the largest amount of your tax dollars at 41%, followed by the county at 14%, the State Basic School levy at 16%, the City at 14% and the Salt Lake County Library at 4%.
Learn more on the Salt Lake County Property Tax website.
Try our Property Tax Calculator to see how much your taxes are as of 2022.
Sales Tax
Sales tax is the largest revenue source for the City of South Jordan, making up approximately 27% of the overall general fund revenues. Sales tax revenues are forecasted utilizing existing collection trends, state budget forecasts, and other economic data which may influence the level of sales within the city.
Change in population is one factor that currently influences the distribution of sales tax revenue in South Jordan City. From the 2000 census to the 2010 census, population growth in South Jordan (71%) far exceeded the population vs Utah State as a whole (29%). This population growth resulted in South Jordan receiving a larger amount of tax revenue, as the Utah State Tax Commission uses new population estimates to distribute sales tax revenue.
Quick Sales Tax Facts
- As of April 1, 2019, the sales tax rate in South Jordan City is 7.25%.
- As of January 1, 2014, the statewide grocery food sales tax rate is 3%. (This tax applies to all non-prepared food purchases)
- Of the Sales Tax 7.25% sales tax collected, 1.00% is distributed to local jurisdictions.
- Of the local option tax collected (1%), 50% is distributed to the South Jordan. The remaining 50% is collected into a statewide pool and then allocated to each local jurisdiction based on each city’s population as a percentage of statewide population.
- Sales tax collected is appropriated by City Council for the general fund.
Franchise Taxes
Quick Franchise Tax Facts
Franchise Fees are collected from the following utilities based on the respective rates resulting in the actual annual collections for FY2019-20:
- Energy Sales & Use Tax (electric & gas), 6% (FY2019-20, $16.5million)
- Telecommunications Tax, 3.5% (FY2019-20, $556,572)
- Cable Television Franchise Tax, 5% (FY2019-20, $456,299)
General Fund
The general fund is the operating fund of the City for general service departments. The general fund has an operating budget of $52 million. This fund encompasses the bulk of activities that are traditionally considered basic governmental services such as public safety, public works, engineering and development services, recreation, and general government.
| Function | Percent | Description |
| Public Safety | 42% | Police/Animal Control/Fire |
| Public Works | 9% | Fleet/Streets/Streetlighting/Cemetery |
| Planning & Engineering | 11% | Planning/Engineering/Building |
| Admin. Services | 23% | Parks/Recreation/Communications/Facilities |
| General Government | 15% | City Manager/ACM/HR/Finance/City Commerce/City Attorney |
2022 Truth in Taxation Information
Quick Truth in Taxation Facts
Here are some quick facts about the Truth in Taxation process.
- Truth in Taxation is a process taxing entities in Utah, like city governments, must follow before tax increases can occur. This ensures that taxing entities only increase taxes when it's needed.
- The Truth in Taxation process allows the public to ask questions about a proposed tax increase before City Council approves it and makes changes.
- Utah property tax law is revenue neutral. The property tax rate automatically adjusts when property values increase or decrease so the amount of money the City receives is the same as the previous year.
- This means that tax rates have decreased for South Jordan residents for the last five years.
- Utah Law allows the City to capture property tax value from new growth and add it to the previous year's base values, but that amount makes small impact to the City's General Fund.
- Over the last five years, new growth values have resulted in approximately $600,000 additional averaged annual revenues, or approximately one percent (1%) of the General Fund budget.
- This one percent (1%) increase in revenues does not meet all of the personnel and operating costs required to recruit and retain employees and the inflationary cost related to maintaining current services as well as additional infrastructure needs.
2022 Economic & Societal Factors
Several economic factors are impacting South Jordan's ability to provide services in 2022.
- Most commodities the City purchases from fuel for vehicles, to salt we use on roads have increased in cost in the last two years.
- Due to supply chain issues and increases in material costs, construction projects have increased by 30% or more in most cases. These projects range from asphalt projects to park play grounds. This has resulted in project delays and has impacted the City's ability to begin planned projects.
- South Jordan is growing quickly, which means the City needs to add staff to support City services and to maintain the service levels residents expect – everything from road work to parks maintenance, to events, and most namely City public safety personnel. As the City continues to grow, it will need more fire fighters and police officers than ever to maintain response times. As the City ages, there will more areas to maintain.
- Within the last few years there has been upheaval in the police profession. This increased retirements among officers and last year several departments across the state increased wages to recruit more officers. The South Jordan City Council was unanimous in supporting current officers with increased pay and to prevent the loss of more personnel.
*The numbers on this page are current as of 2022.