The Cache County Council did not raise taxes last month.
Still, anyone who lives in the county anywhere other than the city of Logan is set to see their Cache County Fire District taxes increase.
On the other side of the coin, anyone who lives in Logan will see their county fire bill fall to zero.
The change, according to county officials, will make things more fair.
During the council’s May 12 meeting, council member Kathryn Beus explained that when the fire district was established in the ‘60s, Logan decided not to join.
But the city’s taxpayers have still paid county taxes funding the fire district, even though they’ve also paid to fund Logan’s fire department.
“We’re not increasing the taxes that Cache County levies,” County Executive George Daines said. “But we are changing who pays those taxes. … The reallocation is to reduce — eliminate — the taxation of Logan residents and concentrate that taxation on the areas in the county that benefit from the county fire department.”
The change means that if you own a $600,000 home in Logan, Daines said, you will owe the county about $74 dollars less a year. If you own that same home anywhere else in the county, you’ll be on the hook for about $40 more.
Although the council unanimously approved the change, not everyone agreed that the switchup was the fair thing to do.
“It is indeed a tax increase to my house,” said Paul Guymon, who lives in the unincorporated Petersboro community. “If we’re subsidizing … I would also expect to see a decrease in my property tax for roads. I drive approximately on one mile of county road on any given day. I pay for far more than one mile of road.”
His taxes, he argued, would only continue to rise as the county assesses that his property is worth more and more.
“Emergency services still use other roads. Packages that are delivered to you still use those roads,” council member Keegan Garrity said. “The county operates just not on what everyone uses. It’d be really hard to make that determination.”
Garrity also stressed that taxes are not directly tied to home assessments, and said that taxes have risen disproportionately low when compared with the value of many properties.
Daines said further disparities still exist in the fire district funding because people who live in cities that are members of the fire district still pay for municipal fire services, though they don’t receive more services than people who live in the unincorporated county. He’s looking to make further alterations to help fix the inequities.
