Did you know that currently only 15% of your property tax dollars comes to the City of South Jordan? Or that South Jordan uses those property taxes to pay for 100% of your Police Department and 19% of your Fire Department?
On August 16, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. at South Jordan City Hall, the City Council will hold a Truth in Taxation hearing for a proposed property tax increase. Residents are invited to attend this hearing to ask questions and to express concerns. On a home valued at $500,000, annual City property taxes are currently $347.33. Under the proposed increase, this amount would be $396.55, a $49.22 increase ($4.10 per month).
The City has worked to educate residents regarding taxes over the last year. Here are some frequently asked questions and their answers below.
Why is the City proposing a tax increase when the number and value of properties is increasing every year?
- 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.
- 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 a small impact to the City's General Fund.
- Over the last five years, new growth values have resulted in approximately $600,000 additional 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.
I am senior on a fixed income, and inflation is already impacting me; why does this need to happen now?
We recognize that any amount of additional costs to our fixed-income seniors can be hard. Under Circuit Breaker, a new law sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (2022 SB25), Utah senior homeowners (and others) with annual household incomes less than $35,807 (in 2021) can receive a property tax credit on their state income tax return. Visit tax.utah.gov/relief/circuitbreaker to apply. In addition, the City offers quality programs and resources for our seniors at our South Jordan Community Center. Please share the resources with anyone you know that our senior programs could help. This includes breakfast at a suggested donation of $2, lunch at a suggested donation of $4, free exercise classes, and free weekly food donations handed out. The “suggested donation” is just that—suggested—which means that they can give what they can afford, even if that is $0. There are also other resources available at the South Jordan Community Center.
If the City only gets 15%* of my property tax dollars, where does the other 85% go?
The Jordan School District receives the largest amount of your tax dollars at 39%; followed by the county at 16%; the State Basic School levy at 15%; the City at 15%; the Salt Lake County Library at 4%; and 11% goes to the sewer district, mosquito district, the water county levy, charter schools, and multi-county collection. *These percentages will change slightly upon tax increase.
What are we getting for the additional $4.10 per month?
- For about $4 per month on a home valued at $500,000, the City will be able to:
- Continue timely response to emergencies
- Continue providing current level of police protection
- Continue roads and parks maintenance at current service levels
- Hire and retain staff
How do our taxes compare to other Cities?
South Jordan’s combined tax rate for all services provided is lower than more than half of the cities in Salt Lake Valley, including Herriman, Riverton, and West Jordan. See the graphic for more details on how we compare to other cities with proposed increases included.
