A new study released by an environmental group claims that 20% more water could be put into the Great Salt Lake if property tax laws were changed to force conservation.
The proposed bill in the Utah State Legislature, first reported by FOX 13 News in May, would remove water use from under the umbrella of property taxes. Right now, people do pay rates but the vast majority of water is covered by property taxes.
The Utah Rivers Council said it studied 342 wholesale water suppliers across the western United States — Washington, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — comparing their property tax collections to Utah’s. It compared them to the Central Utah, Weber Basin, Jordan Valley, Washington County and Metropolitan water districts.
“If we continue to over-consume water upstream in the Great Salt Lake, we’re going to be required to spend billions of dollars on mitigation because of dust problems,” Frankel told FOX 13 News. “We could avoid that by phasing out property taxes and lowering water use.” It would also mean major institutions like schools, churches and nonprofits would have to start paying more for water they use. A major nonprofit property owner in Utah — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — has so far declined to weigh in on the bill .
“We want to make sure our rates are equitable across different user groups that residents are paying their fair share, industry is paying their fair share and we’re not putting all of our costs on current generations and future generations are benefiting from them,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
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