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Utah County assessor seeks staff and software upgrades to speed property reviews as growth surges
Summary
Assessor Chris Polson told commissioners the office seeks one additional personal-property specialist, two temporary analysts and multiple software leases (SPSS/SAS module, Pictometry) to shorten a five-year property-characteristic review cycle to two years and handle rising permit volumes.
Chris Polson, Utah County assessor, outlined his office's proposed investments during a budget work session, saying the department needs modest staff increases and new software to handle rapid growth and reduce time-consuming field reviews. Polson told the Board of County Commissioners that roughly 90% of the county's property tax base is real estate, about 70% of taxable value is residential and 24% is commercial, a mix he said shapes staffing and technology priorities.
Polson framed the request around workload and accuracy: "We're very much less [emphasis] on centrally assessed where the state average is 8.6, we're actually around 4%," he said, and noted that residential properties drive the bulk of taxable value. He described a shift in recent years where permit-driven new construction forces staff away from routine property-characteristic reviews and into processing new-build accounts.
The assessor…
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