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Millard County adopts 2026 tax rates, applies $3 million of new-growth to lower county portion
Summary
Millard County commissioners voted to accept a county tax rate using roughly $3 million of newly calculated growth to reduce the county portion of property tax bills, after a lengthy presentation about state changes to new-growth calculations under HB 378 and debate about balancing reserves and taxpayer relief.
The Millard County Commission voted to accept the county’s certified tax rate for 2026 while applying $3 million of the county’s new-growth calculation to reduce the county portion of property taxes.
County finance staff told commissioners that state legislation (HB 378) altered the new-growth formula and requires 7% of any new-growth an entity elects to take outside the certified rate be remitted to the state. Bonnie (county finance) said the county’s new-growth figure was about $3.449 million and explained the technical change: "This year is quite different. It's something that I have never seen," reflecting the new three-year industry-average calculation and the 7% remittance rule.
Commissioners discussed options including accepting the full certified rate, lowering the rate, or plugging some or all new-growth into the rate to return money to taxpayers without triggering truth-in-taxation hearings. One commissioner framed the trade-off: applying most new-growth into the rate would produce an immediate reduction for county taxpayers but would leave less margin for employee cost-of-living increases and other county needs. Staff presented scenarios showing an average home (taxable value used in the example) would see an annual saving of about $34.65 if the county returned $3 million in new-growth.
After debate — which included questions about state tax commission guidance (a staff member said they had spoken with Josh Nelson at the state tax commission to clarify the 7% rule) and discussion of reserve needs for future items such as jail construction and employee COLAs — a motion to accept the county rate with $3 million of new-growth applied passed. The commission recorded the county rate as 0.001909 (as stated in the meeting) and separately approved the county assessing-and-collecting administrative rate cited in the record (about 0.00301).
The commission emphasized that the total tax bill residents receive includes multiple taxing entities (notably the school district, which receives a majority share), so changes to the county rate may be mitigated or offset by actions of other taxing jurisdictions.
Next steps: the county will finalize rate paperwork and publish the adopted rates; affected taxpayers will see the combined bills when the county and other taxing entities' levies appear on mailed tax statements.
