$1 Billion Overvalued Home Causes Budget Shortfalls
RandomFactor writes:
A data entry error in the Utah State Tax Commission office for Wasatch County caused the value of a home to be over-valued by close to ~$1 Billion dollars.
In May, an error was made which recorded a house built in 1978 as having a value of more than $987 million in the 2019 tax rolls.
In reality, the home should only have had a 2019 taxable value of $302,000.
Wasatch County Assessor Maureen 'Buff' Griffiths told officials last month a staff member may have dropped a phone on a keyboard. Griffiths said the 'horrific' and 'bizarre' mistake has resulted in a countywide overvaluation of more than $6 million
Wasatch county is sparsely populated with a population of 23,530 in its 1,206 square mile area (averaging 19 individuals per square mile). This single mistake flowed through the system causing the county office to significantly overestimate revenue and increase budgets upward, with the consequence that
the blunder has since produced revenue shortfalls in five taxing entities, with budgets already approved.
In Wasatch County's budget, the shortfall is more than $1 million. The Wasatch County Fire District will be short about $253,000, the Wasatch County Parks District will be short about $138,000, and Central Utah Water will be short about $217,000, according to a tax correction notice circulated by the county.
But the biggest blow is to Wasatch County School District, which is short about $4.4 million.
Perhaps unsurprisingly,
Taxpayers may now have to pay for the shortfall, with tax increases over the next three years
County Manager Mike Davis indicates that existing checks should have caught the error, but that in the future they would 'do a better job.'
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