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Legislature unveils Vesta, a new interactive property-tax tool to map Utah taxes
Summary
The Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee received a live demonstration of Vesta, an interactive web application built by the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s office to visualize certified tax rates, tax bases and simulations such as residential-exemption changes; legislators praised the tool and plan to post resources publicly.
Senator Dan McKay, chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, invited Jared Gibbs, an economist with the Office of Legislative Fiscal Analyst (LFA), to present Vesta, the LFA’s new interactive property-tax web application, during the committee’s Jan. 23 hearing. McKay said the tool — developed over roughly two years — aims to reduce public confusion about how Utah property taxes are calculated and to make local taxing authority data more accessible.
Gibbs began with a concise primer on Utah’s property-tax mechanics, saying the certified tax rate is derived by dividing a taxing entity’s targeted revenue by the current tax base. “Instead of asking how much revenue does the statutory rate generate, we instead ask what is the rate we need to generate the revenue,” Gibbs told the committee, explaining that certified rates typically decline as property values rise unless entities pursue additional revenue via new growth or the truth-in-taxation process.
The nut graf: Vesta brings together entity-level profiles,…
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