In July, Utah State Auditor John Dougall and his staff released a new valuable tool that will help property owners all across the state.
With the release of a new interactive website, https://transparent.utah.gov/property.php, taxpayers will be able to drill down to parcel level data. This will provide them the ability to examine trends in their neighborhood, city, county and the entire state. This much higher level of transparency for taxpayers is a welcome addition to the data available to the public.
A user can drill down on their specific parcel and search across wide areas of data to understand their individual situation in greater detail and context. This will also allow taxpayers quick and easy access to public data when they are looking for comparable properties when contesting their valuation.
The new tool will also help policymakers understand the trends in valuations and differences in valuations that happen each year. Those differences are often at the root of many concerns taxpayers express.
The vast majority of counties have been cooperating with the State Auditor in helping them aggregate this already public data. Unfortunately, a few counties including well populated Summit and Wasatch County have so far declined to help provide taxpayers with this greater transparency. The counties that have not been willing to help so far are highlighted in yellow on the interactive map copied below. Taxpayers in those counties should urge their elected officials to not withhold this information any longer.
